A Father’s prayer: Coping with a son’s wounds in Israel’s war - opinion

It has been a harrowing week for my family and me. Our beloved son, Noam, sustained serious wounds while serving in Lebanon, courageously defending our people and our land. 

As I write these words, he remains intubated and sedated but stable. We, along with countless others, continue to pray fervently for his complete recovery. 

We hold steadfast faith that God will guard our precious son, whose unwavering dedication and self-sacrifice embody the spirit of his generation of giants.

It has been an emotionally overwhelming week, filled with fear, tears, and profound uncertainty. At times I could hardly stand and, often feeling the weight of it all, I struggled to catch my breath.

We are suffering deeply for our son – the anguish of his pain, the weight of his medical struggles, and the daunting path that lies ahead.

 This week has been soaked in tears, a cascade of sorrow and heartache that seems unrelenting.

Yet, amid this sea of sadness, we optimistically cling to the hope and faith that the same strength that carried him will guide us through this turbulent storm. 

I am deeply grateful to everyone who has held our son in their hearts and prayers. Each message, every blessing – no matter how small – lifts us and infuses us with the strength we so urgently need.

This painful week has been a stark reminder of the intricate emotional challenges that life places before us, testing our resilience and faith. It has been exceedingly difficult to balance joy and sadness. 

Life often challenges us to carry a mixture of conflicting emotions, holding joy and sorrow side by side in a delicate and painful tension.

THE MIDRASH portrays Abraham’s emotional state during the Akeidah (The Binding of Isaac) as a profound paradox. 

He shed tears of sorrow at the prospect of sacrificing his son, yet his heart brimmed with joy at the opportunity to fulfill the divine will and shape the destiny of Jewish history. 

Abraham was called upon to embody two opposing emotions simultaneously. 

Perhaps for this reason, God designed the heart as a multi-chambered organ, capable of holding feelings that seem to contradict one another, reflecting the complex emotional balance that life often demands of us.

Similarly, the Gemara in Tractate Bava Batra teaches that upon the passing of a close relative, one recites the blessing of Dayan Ha’emet (the true judge), humbly accepting the divine decree.

Yet, upon receiving the inheritance from the deceased, the very same individual is instructed to recite the blessing of Hatov Ve’hameitiv (who is good and does good), expressing gratitude to God. 

This delicate juxtaposition reflects the profound challenge faced by Abraham at Mount Moriah – the ability to hold contrasting emotions in tension, balancing grief and gratitude, while maintaining unwavering faith in moments of profound complexity.

I have wrestled deeply with the delicate balance between joy and sorrow. Despite the severity of his wounds, my heart overflows with gratitude that Noam’s life was spared and that he has a positive prognosis.

He endured the devastating impact of a direct drone attack, yet God, in His infinite kindness, shielded my precious son. 

I thank God for this miraculous gift of life and continue to fervently pray that He will watch over my dear Noam, granting him strength and guiding him toward a complete and lasting recovery.

Yet, my heart remains heavy, burdened with pain. My son’s condition is still precarious, and, with God’s help when he recovers, the path forward will be long and arduous. 

I am overwhelmed with grief for the suffering he must endure – a young man so deeply devoted to serving his people, now weighed down by pain and the uncertainty of what lies ahead.

Secondary emotions

Beyond the struggle of toggling between sadness and grief, this week I found myself grappling with the complexity of emotions, as each conflicting one carried deep and charged secondary responses. 

My gratitude that my son’s life was spared felt tinged with guilt when I thought of the soldier who was killed in the same attack, and certainly when I considered the immense pain and suffering that so many have endured over the past year. 

Am I allowed to feel even this small trace of joy and gratitude? It also felt wrong to feel even minimal gratification while my son still suffers, and while we continue to live in a state of constant and uncertain stress.

However, not feeling gratitude toward God felt like a denial of the protection He granted my son. How can I not thank God deeply for protecting my beautiful Noam from that deadly attack?

It is one thing to reconcile two opposing emotions; it is much harder when each emotion is layered with secondary feelings of guilt and concern about being insensitive or imbalanced. 

I hope that I will find a way to remain grateful for the miracle, while not overlooking our suffering nor the immense suffering of others.

Greater sympathy

This trauma opened my heart in a new and visceral way to the immense suffering our people have endured. 

As much as we try to empathize with others’ pain, as much as we shed tears for their suffering, it is difficult to understand the depth of their anguish until we ourselves experience something that begins to approximate it. My agony made me more deeply realize what others have gone through.

It was so important to us to learn about every step of my son’s journey to the hospital. 

When you care so deeply for someone, you don’t want them to endure even the smallest amount of pain.

It was so difficult imaging him wounded and suffering on the battlefield without me there to help him. It brought me great reassurance to hear from the soldiers who saved his life, how quickly they responded and how they acted with such precision to keep him alive. 

Similarly, speaking with the doctors and hospital staff who admitted him, knowing that my child was under the care of people who were doing everything they could to alleviate his suffering, was a source of comfort.

Though I cannot speak with him, I take solace in knowing he is being cared for every step of the way with love and concern.

But my mind cannot escape the unimaginable suffering of the families of the hostages. To not know anything about your child’s fate, and to live with the knowledge that they are in the hands of brutal terrorists who have no respect for human life and are consumed by hate, must be an unbearable burden – one that requires immense strength just to wake up each day. I apologize to them if I have not felt this grief as deeply as I should have. I will try harder.

Likewise, it brings me immense comfort to know that my son’s unit operated exactly as they should have. Having been attacked by a drone, they feared a terrorist infiltration, and my son immediately ran from his tent to guard the perimeter. 

After being attacked by mortars and taking shelter, he rushed to a lookout post, following protocol, at which point the second drone fell directly on the guard post. 

His friends quickly rushed to provide medical care for him and for the other wounded, while the Humvee trucks transported them swiftly to the helicopters that flew him to the hospital. 

Within a little more than an hour, he was in the operating room. This rapid response undoubtedly saved his life. It gives me great strength to know that my son and everyone around him are heroes and acted with professionalism and dedication.

I have been haunted all week, thinking about situations where soldiers are injured or killed in accidents, friendly fire, or other malfunctions, God forbid. 

It is agonizingly painful to suffer a loss without the storyline to hold onto, without the clarity of a defined sequence that can offer some sense of peace or understanding.

The war persists, and our sacred struggle to safeguard our land and protect our people remains unwavering. While the headlines have shifted to politics, diplomacy, and elections, it is crucial to remember – especially for those far away, where the echoes of war may seem distant – that the pain and hardship endure.

Please keep our people’s pain and suffering front and center as you continue your daily routines.

And please continue praying for my dear son, Noam Avraham ben Atara Shlomit. 

Whatsapp chat- daily updates and periodic requests for tehilim for Noam are athttps://chat.whatsapp.com/EpQxg4zlbMJF9kV2p4ReyQ

The writer is a rabbi at the hesder pre-military Yeshivat Har Etzion/Gush, with YU ordination and a master’s in English literature from CUNY. His most recent book, Reclaiming Redemption: Deciphering the Maze of Jewish History (Mosaica Press), is available in bookstores or at www.reclaimingredemption.com.