Praying and waiting

August 13, 2006 - 8:28 PM by Sarah

The blogger “Westbankmamma” relates small, recent, war-related anecdotes from the women’s section of an Orthodox synagogue in Samaria:

I am an Orthodox Jewish woman and although I do not pray with a minyan (a group of ten adult men) on a regular basis, I do attend the synagogue on Sabbath mornings and for special occasions.

One of these “special occasions” was the evening of the Ninth of Av, when we read the book of Eicha (Lamentations) and mourn the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. After the reading there was a break before a scheduled woman’s Torah lesson, so most of us waited in our section of the synagogue, behind the mechitza (the barrier separating between the men’s and women’s sections which is found in Orthodox synagogues). I noticed not too far away from me a group of women forming, and I quickly realized that they were all mothers of sons now fighting in Lebanon. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, as I sat too far away, and I didn’t feel it was my place to move closer just to satisfy my curiosity. But their faces spoke clearly enough. Grim, and sad, but strong nevertheless.

On the following Sabbath morning I sat next to a very young woman who I recognized as one of the newer faces in our settlement. I knew that her husband was called up and serving in Lebanon – and a quick glance to my left showed me how hard it was for her. Red eyes and nose and slightly trembling fingers holding the siddur (prayer book) spoke volumes. It is forbidden to mourn on the Sabbath, but I couldn’t help but sigh. It helped me focus on my prayers, though.

Yesterday I spent the Sabbath with family members in another city in Israel. At one point I noticed that someone was giving out little scraps of paper to each man in the synagogue. After the services were over I went up to my family and asked them what they were. On each scrap of paper was written a name of a soldier, Hebrew name and the Hebrew name of the mother. Each man was requested to pray and learn Torah especially in the merit of this specific soldier. It gave me pause when my nephew’s scrap of paper had my son’s name – both his given name and my given name.

A commenter, fellow blogger Jameel, shares a tradition in his own synagogue:

When we say the prayer in shul for the welfare of IDF soldiers, we include, out loud, the name of all the soldiers from our yishuv.

There are dozens of them…name after name of our neighbors and their sons are read off in the middle of the [prayer services].

You can hear a pin drop…

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