Day of Resurrection

Two years after October 7, a meditation on loss, heroism, and the possibility of national rebirth.

The victims of the Nova Party Massacre, the site of the “Nova” party, in southern Israel.

A hard day today.
Two years ago, before our eyes and upon our very flesh,
The greatest disaster of our lives occurred.
A deep hole opened in our hearts,
one that will likely never be filled.

We must never forget the murdered.
Never.

Last year, for the first anniversary,
I told the story of little Romy—
a six-year-old from Sderot,
who endured the worst,
the unimaginable.

She protected her sister,
but lost her parents.
“Are you from Israel?”
She asked the policemen who came to rescue her.

Today, I think of Aner.
Aner Elikim Shapira, the hero,
who on that cursed day,
between four concrete walls
and some thirty people,
threw out,
grenade after grenade,
back at those monsters.

They were surrounded;
The only exit led to paradise—
But it was too soon.

Aner declared:
“If I don’t make it or am hit,
someone after me should try to do the same.”
But after the eighth grenade he deflected,
Aner was hit.

Seven survived.
Sixteen were murdered.
Four were abducted.

Aner’s act of heroism,
together with the courage of so many others,
accompanies me day by day.

So does the question:
How did the pure ones
Rise to the heavens so early?

We can never do justice to Aner.
We can never do justice to those sixteen,
nor to the other twelve hundred,
and those still held in Gaza.
What was taken from them, we cannot restore.

But what may yet be taken from us
can still be prevented.
On this day,
let us choose remembrance, courage,
and resurrection.

The resurrection of a nation
that has lost itself.

Let us build a country
where a six-year-old girl will never again have to weep for her parents,
will never again have to wonder:
“Are you from Israel?”

Let us build a country
where no one will have to hurl grenades back at monsters,
where no one will have to fear
that one morning
monsters will knock at the door.

Let us be born anew:

Believe, my heart, believe!
Nothing is lost to you.
Yours is all you have longed for,
Yours all you have loved,
For which you have fought.

It is time to die, so as to live.
Arise, yes, arise again,
My heart, in an instant!
All that you have suffered for
Shall lead you to God on high.

Tremble no more—
Rise, and live!

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Dedicated to the memory of Aner Elikim Shapira (2001–2023)

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Last year’s essay — “Are You from Israel?” — tells the story of little Romy:
a six-year-old whose question became a question for all of us.
You can read it here: “Are You from Israel?”

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— Quotation from Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection” (1895) by Gustav Mahler,
text by Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock and Gustav Mahler.