4 | OCTOBER 12 • 2023 
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N

PURELY COMMENTARY

world news
Holiday/Shabbat prayers go on, 
while tragedy unfolds in Israel. 

Beit Shemesh, Israel
N

early everyone at 
the early morning 
services for Shemini 
Atzeret/Simchat Torah (Oct. 
7) noticed the 
noise of pass-
ing aircraft 
and occasional 
distant popping 
sounds. Those 
seemed normal 
enough to a 
recent immi-
grant from 
Michigan, but alarming to 
people used to Israel. 
 The main morning service 
that started later was inter-
rupted by sirens more than 
once. The Iron Dome system 
was intercepting rockets, 
some close to Beit Shemesh 
in central Israel. Worshippers 
had no doubt we were under 
attack by rockets — and 
maybe in other ways, too.
At lunch, family members 
from the later services report-
ed that some worshippers 
took this in stride, and other 
people needed help dealing 
with their anxiety. The sirens 
also came during lunch. 
 Each house in this neigh-
borhood has a room that also 
serves as a bomb shelter, a 
mamad, and we had to gather 
in the mamad a few times 
that afternoon. The youngest 
of our group, a 2-year-old, 
received a matter-of-fact 
explanation from his mother: 
“When the alarm sounds, we 
go into the mamad for a few 
minutes, and then we can 
come out again. It is safer 
inside the mamad.” 

Inside the shelter, he 
seemed restless. His mother 
suggested that they sing, and 
he asked for a Simchat Torah 
song. So, they sang an old 
standard tune for the day, a 
musical setting for a verse 
from Psalms: “Hoshiah et 
Amekha” (Psalms 28:9). Its 
message, a prayer asking God 
to “save your people,” seems 
especially appropriate right at 
this moment. 
A couple of the people 
around the table are in the 
active military. They need to 
have their phones with them 
now. One phone keeps going 
off, and the soldier steps out-
side to get his orders. 
The rest of us do not use 
our phones or radios on 
Shabbat, as usual, so we do 
not get any up-to-date infor-
mation about the threat. We 
certainly have heard nothing 
reassuring. 

As the Festival of Shemini 
Atzeret/Simchat Torah and 
Shabbat draw to a close, 
friends met on the street to 
discuss the situation. Should 
we go to the synagogue? 
Someone said the govern-
ment had asked people not to 
gather in large numbers. One 
contingent walked past on 
its way up to the synagogue. 
Maybe they have not heard 
the rumor. About 15 men and 
a few women stayed behind 
to say the afternoon prayer 
right there on the street. That 
street counts as a safe place 
for prayers on Shabbat: a cul-
de-sac in a national religious 
neighborhood, it hardly ever 
has any traffic then. 
Conversation on the street 
turns to who had been called 
up during the day. One 
family had a festive meal 
for the extended family that 
morning, but now two sons 

and one son-in-law have 
received their calls and left. 
Another man said he had 
just returned from driving a 
son to his rendezvous when 
the call came for his other 
son; now he has come back 
from the second trip. 
Then we say the after-
noon service on the street. 
During the service, a cell-
phone chimes and one 
of the military-aged men 
discretely slips away. A car 
comes down the street slow-
ly; worshippers step aside 
to let it through. It pulls 
over at the last house on the 
street, where a young man 
comes out to get in the car. A 
woman follows for one long 
look at him as the car turns 
around and drives quickly 
back up the street. 
When night falls, everyone 
will hurry to find a news 
source. 

Louis 
Finkelman 
Contributing 
Writer

Beit Shemesh

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