Yom Ha'Zikaron: Feeling for Family

By Sroly Lehrer:

Yom Ha’Zikaron at RYNJ was very inspiring. In the morning, a group of Bnei Akiva leaders told us about a few soldiers who lost their lives, and we really got a good picture of who they were through their stories. By lunch, a former IDF soldier who learns in YU told us an amazing story about a miracle that happened during one battle, and helped us understand how we can help soldiers even from New Jersey. In the afternoon, Rabbi Bernstein connected what he said on Yom Ha’Shoah about valuing others through positive actions to Yom Ha’Zikaron by feeling for the soldiers in the IDF - our family - and then showed us two short videos that were very moving. We then each got an ID card with a picture, name and age of a fallen soldier in the Israeli army, and everyone said a perek of Tehillim listed for the soldier on their card. We said the entire Tehillim since everyone had a perek to say. The soldier that I said Tehillim for was only twenty years old, but he was willing to give his life so Israel can have its independence. It was a very meaningful day.