We often read about heroes and see their pictures on a screen. To shake their hands, to hear their voices, and to offer gratitude for their heroic actions is unprecedented.
Last night, at the Magbit Foundation Gala, I experienced heroism.
Maya and Itay Regev, two released hostages, shared how they felt hope from Jews around the world that allow them to continue their lives. Former Israeli Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, shared his vision of how to bring them all home while defeating Hamas.
Each story was more powerful than the next.
The next speaker who took the stage could not see. Yonatan was a tank commander, whose older brother was killed in a training accident a few years before. Yonatan decided to continue his combat service, and was severely injured when an RPG hit his tank in Gaza.
While he could not see us, we could feel each other. The 1,000 attendees understood we were in the presence of a great human being. Yonatan shared that his friend visited him in the hospital and said, “You have the choice to create a life of hope from despair.” Last night, he told us the same thing to a standing ovation.
This Shabbat, we read in our parsha of kedoshim, the holiness code, that we should not place a stumbling block before the blind. The Rabbis explain this means literally, but also metaphorically.
Yonatan’s words meant both. As his girlfriend Noa led him around the room and onto the stage, he also inspired us to recognize the blind spots we have in our own lives. The ideas and experiences we cannot see at the moment, but with hope and action, become clear before our eyes.
When that occurs, we each will live a life of kedusha, sanctity, and holiness.
