So, it’s the day after Yom Kippur. And somehow, even though we’ve done Yom Kippur for 60 years, everything felt different. The fasting. The day in the synagogue immersed in prayer. Even the prayers themselves. It all seemed new, as if it had been designed especially for this time in our lives, to help us cope with the overwhelming challenges with which we have been faced.

Some examples in the liturgy:

“Our Father our King, avenge before our eyes the spilled blood of your people.

Our Father, our King, nullify the plans of those who hate us… thwart the counsel of our enemies… rid us of every oppressor and adversary… tear up the evil decree against us.”

And surely, everyone in Israel thought of the hostages as they read these words of the prophet Jonah: “From a narrow place I cry out to the Lord and He will answer me. From the belly of hell I beg and You hear my words… Raise my life up from the abyss, Lord my God as my spirit faints away in me…”

And then there are the prayers for our soldiers: “May He subdue our enemies under them and crown them with deliverance and victory. And may there be fulfilled in them the verse, ‘It is the Lord our God who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to deliver you.’ ”

I managed to keep it together until Yizkor, the prayer of remembrance for the dead. First, I membered my parents. And then every soldier who has ever fallen in battle in defense of the Land of Israel: “God, full of mercy… grant fitting rest on the wings of the Divine presence to the pure and the brave, who shine like the radiance of heaven, the holy ones who fell in battle and sacrificed their lives for the consecration of God’s name, for the people and the land… Shelter them in the shadow of Your wings forever, and bind their souls in the bond of everlasting life… May the Garden of Eden be their resting place.”

My tears were as raw as the grief in my heart as I thought of them, the young boys and girls, the married reservists, whose partners and children, siblings and parents, had now to deal with the huge hole torn out of their lives that will never heal.

It is no coincidence that Jewish liturgy is full of such prayers. Again and again, the Jewish people through the ages have faced similar terrors, identical battles against genocidal barbarians, and yet have found the courage to pick themselves up and – with the help of their faith and their God – achieved the impossible and moved on.

Just taking a day off from our lives – the constant sirens, the hourly news bulletins – to sit and pray all day long, without having to worry about eating and drinking; the sheer luxury of spending the entire day in dialogue with God. For it was a dialogue. I know when I poured out my heart silently to Him, asking Him to please keep our people and our country safe from our enemies; to please watch over our soldiers, and the special one that is my grandson, He heard me. I felt it. And when I asked to have the remaining hostages who are still alive released and returned to their tortured families, to destroy the wicked people who did this to us, I know He heard me.

But it is no secret that God hears our prayers and sometimes says No. I pray this time, He will say Yes.

So far, I see the “Yes” in all that is happening. Despite a hundred missiles from Lebanon and Gaza, not a single Israeli was harmed over Yom Kippur. The Beit Juliana Retirement Home in Herzliya was damaged by one of the two drones sent from Lebanon, but the elderly residents – some of them Holocaust survivors – had all been able to get to their shelters.

Over 2,255 Hezbollah terrorists and their supporters have been killed since the beginning of the war, and another 10,534 have been injured. Dozens of villages in southern Lebanon have been cleared of their inhabitants, the IDF has carted away huge amounts of weaponry meant for the invasion of the Galilee, and destroyed infrastructure above and below ground. The border which only a few weeks ago was a fearsome front endangering our entire north – Safad, Nahariya, Carmiel, Haifa – is now being crossed into by Israeli journalists and politicians without fear.

Hezbollah, which used to religiously publish the photos of its fallen, has stopped, the numbers too vast and demoralizing. Muhammad Afif, Hezbollah’s public relations officer, revealed the organization’s deep shame by making the absurd claim that Israel is hiding its losses in the battles against Hezbollah! As if we could! Look at how many Israelis are out in the streets protesting when even a single Israeli is unaccounted for!

The plain fact is, two weeks into the IDF’s ground operation, Hezbollah has fled from the villages of southern Lebanon. Which is why it cannot come up with a single photo of itself in battle with the IDF, something Hezbollah has always done as part of its psychological warfare. Abu Ali: “If they aren’t publishing any [photos], it means they don’t have any. There are no Hezbollah operatives on the front lines. They have either fled or been killed.”

Military correspondent Doron Kadosh reports that the IDF is clearing the large fortified complex in the dense forest near the border which was meant to be used for the Hezbollah invasion of Israel, turning it instead into a platform to defend the Galilee. Kadosh says Israeli forces have encountered no resistance and that Hezbollah forces have fled 5-10 kilometers north.

A photo of a near naked Hezbollah operative captured by the IDF in an underground tunnel filled with weapons is making waves on the Internet, with Al Jazeera refusing to report on it, and the “Resistance” claiming the picture can’t possibly be a Hezbollah fighter… Ha ha!

In Jabaliya in Gaza, the Fallujah neighborhood is rubble. Total destruction. People were warned to leave. There is no medical facility, and no food distribution. This is to prevent Hamas terrorists from returning and re-entrenching.

UNIFIL is complaining Israel has hurt some of their forces from Sri Lanka. Since the UN force is less than useless, having observed the terrorist buildup along the border for years and done nothing to enforce numerous UN resolutions, Netanyahu has told the UN: “Remove UNIFIL forces from Southern Lebanon. They are just in the way.”

They’ve been warned.

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