"L'hiyot am chofshi b'artzeinu..." ("To be a free people in our own land..." Hatikva).

There are times when it is difficult for the written word to capture the depths of one's feelings. As I write this letter in late July, bombs and missiles are falling across northern Israel and three Israeli soldiers are being held captive by Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists. Israel has responded by attacking in Lebanon and Gaza.

This is anything but my usual two-week stint as a rabbi at the Union for Reform Judaism's Camp Harlam as I spend time talking with, but mostly listening to, the 32 Israelis working here for the summer. All of them have served in the Israel Defense Forces, all of the men and even some of the women are reservists waiting to see if their units will be mobilized for the current conflict. Although technically while out of the country, unless it is an absolute emergency, they do not have to return for the mobilization, all have said that if their units are called they are going home to serve. Each of them is concerned for family and friends. Many of them live in the cities and towns that have been shelled. These soldiers are little more than children themselves, who we know as counselors and staff running around a soccer field or a basketball court. They are passionate not only in their love of Israel but in their commitment to defending it. Their love of country, their commitment, their honor is beautiful--even inspiring.

L'hiyot am chofshi b'artzeinu...The bitter irony of it all is that the purpose of Zionism was normalization--to make us like all of the nations, to end our status as a ghetto people who live apart. Instead, Israel has become a nation shunned by much of the world. Every national policy choice is a painful one: when to respond to terrorist attacks and when to live with them; when a response should be "proportional" (oh, what a euphemism) and when a response needs to up the ante, when withdrawal is seen as a weakness or a strength. What nation in the world but Israel lives with the unyielding pressure of heavily armed terrorists across the border with no one to control them? "A nation like all of the nations?" The Zionist dream remains elusive.

L'hiyot am chofshi b'artzeinu... This summer's escalation began with a specific attack on Israel that resulted in the killing of two soldiers, the wounding of two soldiers and the kidnapping of one: Gilad Shalit. Israel's response can only be understood with this in mind: Israel is a society that lives for its children--what else would one expect from a Jewish country? It is filled with parks and playgrounds and scolding neighbors and passersby who do not hesitate to speak up if, God forbid, they judge that you haven't dressed your children warmly enough on a cold winter day. In a country that has become used to burying its young, the added tragedy of seeing its children taken captive by Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists from inside the boundaries of the sovereign state was simply too much. Israel gives so much to its children, perhaps in part because it requires so much: to stand watch on hostile borders 365 days a year, indeed to live in an atmosphere of real and potential danger every day of their lives. The entire ethic of the country is rooted in love for those children. Kidnap them and you have struck at the country's very soul.

L'hiyot am chofshi b'artzeinu... Israel remains the modern Jewish miracle of our age. As we enter our holiest season of the year, let us pray for all her children.