Purim 2010 – Mishloach Manot to Chayalim – A Personal Story – Sharon Spira
Dear friends, greetings from Jerusalem ! |
 Two trucks went out laden with mishloach manot to chayalim. This year I had the privilege of accompanying the truck that covered the Benyamin Regional Council area and the Shomron. Rav Lior Barnea, who led the way, explained how with recent developments, 10% of the defense forces were removed from this area (approximately 1000 troops). Many roadblocks have also been removed and there are new realities on the ground. On the one hand, with contiguous areas for Arabs, their businesses are booming and life is good. This does serve as a deterrent because they do not wish to return to greater limitations. On the other hand, the local Jewish populations are quite concerned as travel for them has become potentially more dangerous and as soon as they step out of their home communities they find themselves in hostile territories. |
|
We visited the Duchifat unit in Kochav Ya’akov and Ofra. After distributing our own mishloach manot to the chayalim, we watched as they loaded their guitars and goodies into trucks enroute to the local hospital to share the joy of Purim with other Jews in less fortunate situations. I can only imagine the strength that patients take from seeing these young men come to entertain them in uniform. Mi k’amcha Yisrael – a nation of priests and holy Jews – children who emulate their Father in Heaven who visited Avraham as he was healing from his brit milah. It is these acts of personal connection – your fundraising activities, personal greetings and feeling of connections to our troops on the fronts, our role as your emissaries distributing your good wishes and baskets of goodies, and the soldiers who take strength from these acts of loving kindness and in turn continue the chessed by giving strength to others in need. This is truly a cycle of chessed that brings strength, glory and simcha to man and to G-d! |
 From here we continued to Har Bracha and Mitzpeh Yishai where we visited the Nachshon unit, the Homefront Command unit and tanks and artillery. Mind you, we were a three minute drive away from Shechem – a hotbed of terrorist activity. The major checkpoint which used to be at the intersection there and prevented countless terror attacks has been removed. There remain a few chayalim in this place whose sole responsibility is to make sure that no Jews accidentally take a wrong turn and end up in Shechem. From here it was on to Yakir where there were additional units from the Homefront Command including those responsible for lookouts, building, search and rescue from the Shachar unit. Here we met a former student from the Milken Academy as well as a former New Jersey resident, an SAR graduate. We learned that the Homefront Command is now preparing more of its chayalim for active duty and so they are beginning to assume positions in various Shomron communities. |
Our final stop was Motzav Tzofim where the Keren unit is serving along with border police and artillery units. Divided into different areas, upon hearing the music from our truck, young men and women came from every direction to receive their goodies. I cannot tell you how many times these chayalim and chayalot said how much koach they get from the pictures of young children; from the words of support, knowing in a very concrete fashion that people in far away places really care about them and value what they are doing. The day ended after davening mincha with the chayalim joining our group to dance in the spirit of simcha which defines the holiday of Purim. |
