Friday -- The Smolenskys

Livnot volunteer bringing food and help to homebound elderly resident of Tzfat last week.

[moderator] from the Smolenskys:

Mr. S is a member of the Tzfat City Council. His parents live in the building next to ours. His father died about two months ago at a very old age but nonetheless, missed. Another member of his family, a young lady, died in a terrorist attack recently. Now, the family was hit again by the tragic news that Mr. and Mrs. S have lost their 20 year old son in Lebanon. Mr. S will not succumb to the pain of all these losses. Instead he arranged for a large truck to come to Tzfat from Zikron Yaakov filled with produce and staples for the people in Tzfat. He first came to the neighborhood of his mother and workers piled on the sidewalk bags of potatoes, boxes filled with a variety of staples, small boxes of fruit, watermelons so that people could come and take what they needed. It was a joyful scene and the workers wished everyone a Good Shabbos. Mr. S sat in his car at a small distance from the truck and watched the scene of people benefiting from his efforts and certainly I think his heart swelled with joy. A wonderful way to turn his personal losses into good. Soon Mr. S drove away, followed by the truck to another stop in the city. Every stop in the city must have given him increased joy at the sight of people getting helped from his efforts to deal with the pain in his heart.
Everyone in a war suffers losses. However, I am deeply disturbed with the scenes we view on our computer news as well as stories we read about Lebanese civilians suffering in their bomb shelters and pictures of traumatized children and wailing women. They parade their dead to provoke and use as public relations vehicles. Are these people innocent civilians or supporters of Hezbollah who attacked Israel? Or are they just victims of the weak Lebanese government that is supportive as well as manipulated and overpowered by a recognized terrorist group called Hezbollah whose publicly professed agenda is to destroy Israel and then march on to conquer the world?
Life continues in Tzfat in spite of everything and this morning people scurried about getting ready for Shabbos knowing that attacks could come at any time. The morning was quiet; we got our cooking done. This afternoon there were three periods of siren warnings and rockets slammed into the Western side of Tzfat in attempts to reach the hospital. Many families are living at least part of the time in shelters and Lev U'Neshama is getting food to them as well as delivering to homes.
Chickens don't know about war. They continue to happily lay eggs. A woman called offering flats of eggs to be used by Lev U'Neshama. They were delivered this morning to shelters by an affable gentlemen in Tzfat with a car that looked like in ran on prayers. Along with the eggs went sacks of other requested items purchased at two local small stores that LUN is doing business with in attempts to keep them open and available. Produce will be delivered to shelters this Monday, G-d willing.
The lights are flickering and I might lose electricity so I'll take this time to wish everyone a peaceful Shabbat, whether it is observed on Saturday or Sunday. We're all in this together, you know.
Moshe & Yaffa, your still-smiling, on-the-spot war correspondents.