Only the Beginning
For most of the soldiers, the Gaza War is over for the time being. For others though, the struggle is only beginning. Behind the names on the prayer and tehillim lists that are circulating, there are soldiers that have paid the price of Israel's defense with their own limbs - courageous young men fighting the tough road to recovery that's just as tough a spiritual and emotional uphill battle as it is a physical one. Some of these young man are amputees; others have been crippled and will have to learn to walk again. Each has his own story and his own inner issues. Emuna Outreach is doing everything it can to augment medical treatment and physical therapy with the type of spiritual therapy - emuna enhancement - that will be conducive to the wounded soldiers' faster and more complete recovery and rehabilitation.
Do you remember a Mother's Emuna Story from ten days ago? Her son Moshe, a new Oleh from Miami who has been in the IDF for slightly under a year, is a valiant young man who lost an arm in a bombardment in the south of Gaza. Moshe is undergoing tremendous pain, a known phenomena among amputees known as "phantom pains," where the almost unbearable excruciating pain seems to be coming from the newly missing limb. Moshe and I have spoken several times on the phone, and 2 nights ago, I went to visit him at the Orthopedic Rehabilitation Center at the Tel Hashomer Hospital outside of Tel Aviv.
Photo above: Moshe and Rabbi Lazer
Moshe is amazing - all he wants is to return to his unit. His rehab will take a few months, and once his wound heals, he'll be outfitted with an artificial arm. Meanwhile, he's in tremendous pain; we're trying our best to help him keep his mind off the pain with loads of books and CDs.
While at Tel Hashomer, we spent time with other wounded soldiers in rehabilitation, making a special effort to visit the new-immigrant soldiers. Ivgeny Viernik is an NCO in the Givati Infantry regiment who came to Israel from the Ukraine. Ivgeny was shot in the leg by a sniper, but he too is a brave trooper that doesn't utter a word of complaint.
Photo, above: Ivgeny and Rabbi Lazer
Emuna Outreach wants to thank all of our generous contributors who enabled us to distribute so many books and CDs among the soldiers of the IDF and the civilians in areas under missile attack during the recent war. Many people told us that the books and CDs played a big part in keeping them strong under super-stress situations.
For our wounded soldiers, this is only the beginning of new challenges and lives that will see drastic changes. Let's pray for their full recovery in body, mind, and spirit, amen.
