Impact of Violence on Family Celebrations

In two weeks, Ido is supposed to celebrate his bar mitzvah.

The family celebration will no longer happen as he imagined.

His father and sisters were murdered.

Just the day before, he received a pair of tefillin from his father.

This, this is horrific. Really, I…

I don't know how we go on.

Everything is still there.

Yesterday, he asked me about the tefillin for his bar mitzvah.

I simply didn't know what to tell him.

There was nothing left there.

The boy is only 13.

Get tefillin back to the boy.

Ido. His name is Ido.

What does it matter? You, you, you realize this is a combat zone, right?

That's true.

Avinoam, you're just in some loop right now, you're

hysterical, and you don't know where to direct it.

Lazer, is there something else we can do?

I can have four pairs of Rashi and Rami Tam's dad's tefillin donated to him within a day.

He's completely secular.

Right.

No, but don't you understand that it's the pair of tefillin his father

gave him? It's his memory of his father. Come on.

Fine, my father gave me a pair of tefillin too. It doesn't mean anything.

Avinoam.

I'm with you.

What?

Let's do it.

Yes.

How are you, soldier? Everything okay? How do you feel?

What?

We're from inside the kibbutz.

You can't. This is a closed military area. Entry is for soldiers only, not civilians.

Exactly, we came to barbecue for the soldiers there. Exactly.

You know, lift their spirits a bit, make them happy, make them feel good.

Where's the barbecue?

Shimi has the barbecue.

Shimi is still [unclear].

He passed through here a few hours ago with the meat.

He's definitely inside, waiting for soldiers to put it on the grill.

So it's a shame—

What battalion are you in, Ramat HaShmona?

Commander, you're making too much of this. Come on, we're all volunteers. Let us through. Come on.

I understand. Come on, take your things and get out of here.

Wait, wait, Commander, Commander, listen for a second, we have something to do there.

Fine, come on, listen to me for a second.

What don't you understand?

It's wartime now, this isn't the time to go looking for mortar shell fins to put

in the meeting room. Get out of here, get out.

Mizorash.

We're already leaving.

Wait, wait, listen to me for a second.

No "just a second," Amsalem.

Wait, give me a second, okay? Give me a minute. A minute.

Wow. Wow. Wow.

Listen, we're going into the kibbutz to get the tefillin of

one of the kids. Ido.

Ido,

his father died—he was murdered, he didn't just die.

And his father was the one who gave him those tefillin,

which are from the Holocaust. I guarantee you, the tefillin didn't burn.

I guarantee it, okay? We're bringing them to him for his bar mitzvah, and to get

to him,

to the house, we have to get through the checkpoint.

The answer is no.

So how do you expect us to get into the kibbutz?

The shortest way there is to enlist.

Okay, now you're just being racist.

Okay, let's go.

I'm telling you in advance, do you want to bring them to Mom or not?

I don't know what you'll find there. Everything's burned.

I guarantee they survived. We'll bring them to her mother.

The Almighty—

Enough with the Almighty. Enough already.

Okay, the conditions.

You do what I tell you. Got it?

Got it.

It'll be dark soon. We're going in there for ten minutes, then

we leave.

Ten minutes, then we leave.

I'm not responsible for you in any way. Got it? Nothing. Do you understand?

I'm telling you.

Got it.

Amsalem, bring me body armor and helmets. Wait for me here.

I've got Fadi.

Okay.

Thanks.

We don't need that stuff. Okay.

What's he bringing me?

A bulletproof vest.

This isn't it. I'll share it with Eden.

You can't share that.

It's right here.

In the end, they want to kill us just because of these tefillin.

It doesn't matter if they use them, that they don't put them on isn't

terrible.

I just realized that these forms of light are what

connects us. Really.

What are you talking about?

There isn't a death toll yet. They're still searching for bodies in the area.

There are people nobody even knows who they are. You understand? Tefillin.

You're frying my brain. Do you know what “cleared” means in graffiti?

Do you know what it means?

That they've removed all the human remains from here.

I removed them.

What human remains?

Here.

Maybe they should've told you at the induction center that if you enlist, you'll be saving tefillin.

Maybe that would've helped. He was about to fry my brain. Come to the shelter.

Avinoam.

Come on.

Come on.

Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on come on, come on.

Go, go, go, go, come on.

Look, it's here.

Like that, bro.

Can't you see we're in the middle of a battle?

Mom is waiting for it.

You piece of shit.

What a load of shit, Gad.

You're crazy.

Sometimes this is what the Holy One, blessed be He, wants us to do so that we'll be part of the story.

Enough already, this "part of the story" thing again. I'm a soldier already.

Calm down, war, calm down.

Why did you say "part of the story," huh? That's what soldiers are for, they—

They'll do it. You want to be part of the story, enlist.

You're fat and lazy.

A song, simply

like the sea, like the tree,

the stone.

A song that will touch me, pure,

that will wash over me,

the silence that will swallow

me.

Truly.

A song that will touch me, pure,

that will burn.

So that everyone who hears it

will feel with me,

so those who tonight

are sleeping

will hear, because I'm here, awake,

with open eyes, toward

summer. This is the house

that has stood for years

among those same houses,

it is one of a kind.

And I knew

that no one would bring back

and I wanted

to remember the song

that will touch me, pure,

that will burn,

so that everyone who hears it

will feel with me,

so those who tonight

are setting sail

Ships of angels

in the eternal sea.

Do not sing.

This is the house

that has stood for years

among those same houses,

alone. And I knew

that no one would bring it back.

And I wanted

to remember the song that would touch

me clean.

That silence would burn me,

would swallow me,

for real.

A song that would touch me clean,

that silence would burn me,

that everyone who hears it

would feel it with me,

that those whom the night

those

above would hear.