Note: The names of the terror victims in the Neve Yaakov shooting can be found here.
Who can explain
How explain
Someone who sees bursts of alien fire
And knows instinctively: Someone else is in danger
And jumps unthinkingly into the fray
How explain someone who does not hide,
And then
Hit by fire, returns fire
And drowning, saves
And bleeding, aims –
How explain this courage…
How explain
Someone who looks out the window
After Kiddush, zemirot and challah
And hears – shooting! And leaps into the battle
How explain the wife who follows him
Armed with a tray of good deeds
Because she knows there must be those in need of aid
How explain…
How explain being shot down in the street
And how explain that they were
He who warms the hearts of parents
And the Prophet Elijah of our time
For whom helping strangers is the norm
And those people who left their simple homes
To welcome the Sabbath Queen
People of prayer, people of community
People now written in the Book of Eternal Life
Jews of the Holy Shabbat.
How explain…
Tsur Ehrlich is a well known Israeli poet, journalist, translator and book critic who writes a weekly poetry column in the Makor Rishon Hebrew weekly where this poem appeared.
Translated with permission by Rochel Sylvetsky