Bring Back Our Boys
By Moshe Katz

June 26, 2014 . Day 14...

Perhaps we see our own faces in theirs. 

Perhaps we see our own children, our nephews, our students in them.

Perhaps after 2,000 of exile our nation has finally come home and united.

The nation IS united. We are One and we are strong.

We all feel the pain of the missing young men.

Are they boys or are they men? I do not buy the pathetic plea to the world to "save our boys" as if they were little children taking as bargaining chips. 

They are not.

They are of, or nearly of, military age. And we are at war. Simply the facts.

I do not buy the idea of asking the world to "Bring Back Our Boys", that is futile, a waste of time and pathetic. Asking God for help is another matter.

Israeli soldiers searching near Hebron

Yes, it is every parents nightmare. But it is part of our lives and we accept it. When I used to walk my brother to the bus station as he returned to his unit I would wonder...would this be the last time? In my heart was a silent prayer...bring back my brother. Today is the father of a soldier and three wonderful girls, thank God.

Yes, every phone call makes us jump, yes, we live with worry. A mother grinds her teeth at night for fear for her children and grandchildren and we ask God...Bring back our boys.

This is the price we pay for being a free nation in our own land. And yes, we know it.

How does life go on? 

During the Second Lebanon War with my nephew and many of my students in the conflict...how could I function? We live in trepidation.

Abraham brought forth his only son, ready to sacrifice him. He was ready to give up the dearest of all, for what? How could he know what he was doing all those years ago? But now we know, now we know.

Now we know what Father Abraham was doing, he was showing us the way, he was making us strong for this moment nearly 4,000 years later, where we, his sons, would face this challenge. And like him we turn our eyes to God, our hope, and we cry out, "My help comes from God creator of heaven and earth" because there is no one else to rely upon.


Gilad, Naftali, Eyal, Biblical names, raised in our land, the land of Israel.

For 2,000 years we prayed daily, we remembered Zion, we remembered Jerusalem and finally we came home. The sons have returned to their borders and now we turn to God and ask to bring back three of our boys.

The nation is united, some pray, some fight, some search, everyone is doing what they can.

Mother Rachel, buried on the side of the road near Bethlehem, the wife of Jacob, Yaakov, weeps for her children to come home and today three Jewish mothers weep and every Jewish mother around the world shares the pain Bring back our boys!!

Jewish mothers. The mothers of the kidnapped teens

These eyes have seen the destruction of the Holy Temple, these eyes have cried and now they turn to God and plead! We are doing all we can and we turn to you because there is no one else to turn to.

The young men, our soldiers, and not so young men, are out there searching, night and day, for a clue, something that will lead us to them, and we still hope, to find them alive.

And old men are up late at night, at the site of the Holy Temple, now destroyed and under foreign control, and they pray, and all of Israel prays with them. Bring back our boys. We have come home from all over the world as it has been prophesied. We have lived to see the words of the prophets come true. And now we wait for one more miracle, we wait, we pray, with the tears flowing down every face we pray, and we ask the holy one... a prayer Shuvu Banim, Sons come home!!

And our voices turn to heaven....to the creator of heaven and earth and we say Bring Back Our Boys.

Prayer at the site of our Holy Temple and...

..combat. This is our approach. IDF soldiers with the Israeli made Tavor rifle, in honor of the great battle on Mount Tavor.

"Go and draw toward mount Tabor, and take with thee ten thousand men of the children of Naftali and of the children of Zebulun"(Judges 4:6) 

And Israel under the command of Barak Ben Avinoam of the tribe of Naftali, vanquished General Sisera and the Canaanites. Maybe today the Tavor will help bring back our Naftali, and Gilad and Eyal.

Bring Back Our Boys.

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