* Translation by Yehoshua Siskin ([email protected])
This past Shabbat morning there was a brit milah for the son of Yedidya Eliyahu HY”D, who fell in Gaza four months ago. No words can describe the atmosphere in the event hall where the brit took place. A connection between joy and sorrow, between a new life and a life that was missing, between heaven and earth, between this world and the next.
The grandfather, Rabbi Yoram Eliyahu, was the sandak (godfather), the one who held the baby during the brit. In the father’s absence, he blessed the boy: “Who sanctified us with his commandments and commanded us to enter him into the Covenant of Avraham our father.”
Meitar, the mother, blessed “Sh’hechiyanu” and “Hagomel” over the brit and the safe delivery.
The mohel asked those assembled to pray. “These are holy moments,” he remarked. When there are no words to express what we feel, our prayers pierce the heavens — prayers for the baby, for his mother, for the soldiers and the wounded and the hostages, prayers for everyone and everything. And his name in Israel shall be called: Porat Avia.
I previously wrote how Yedidya Eliyahu HY”D, when asked “How are you?” would answer “Living the dream.” When I was leaving after the brit, his mother Ziva Eliyahu told me with eyes full of tears, but with a smile: “We will continue to live the dream, but differently.”