Trying to find a quote about faith in Jewish texts isn’t too challenging. Many come to mind. But, to be honest, my favorite quote about faith is from a Dutch Christian named Corrie Ten Boom. Corrie, a righteous gentile who saved scores of Jews from the Nazis, once said, “When a train goes into a tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away the ticket and jump off. You trust the engineer.”

Well, yesterday, at about 11:15 a.m., we went down into a Hamas terror tunnel used last year to attack Israelis. It was dark. And after two minutes, you wanted to jump out. There is a lot that has been said already about these tunnels. It’s one of those things that, until you stand there and see how well they’re made, and realize how far down into the ground you are, and think about their sole purpose, it’s hard to find the words to adequately describe the pit which forms in your stomach. The 4,800 rockets weren’t enough last summer... They fell from the sky and rose up from the ground.

At one point, walking the 20 meters up and out of the tunnel, I finally understood one phrase in the Passover Haggadah: “In every generation they RISE UP (והיא שעמדה) to annihilate us.”

But their rising doesn’t mean our falling.  
Case in point: Ruchama Gotlib

We went to visit Shmuelie and Ruchama Gotlib. They are the parents of Matan Gotlib. Matan Gotlib was in our GMW second Diller teen cohort. Matan was a great spirit who loved to travel. One year ago Friday, to the day, Matan was killed in the army. He was in Gaza inspecting a house which, no one realized, was booby-trapped.  

No one should ever know the pain of losing a child. It is, in a word, unimaginable. And no matter the distance of time, the pain remains close by.

Ruchama began to speak about Matan. Her eyes began to swell with tears. We were silent, and we felt her pain. Her voice remained steady, if guarded, as she talked about what happened on that day. As she went on, Ruchama began to regain her composure. She excused herself for a moment and brought us watermelon. Then cake. Then cookies and coffee. And before you knew it, the tension in her living room began to lift and we engaged in conversation. Ruchama Gotlib is iron. She is stoic. The pain is there, her life forever changed and marred, but while “they rise,” she will not fall.

We don’t fall.
By the end of our visit we did something I would have never guessed: We laughed. We laughed about what was funny about Matan and, at one point, she wanted to show me her tattoo in memory of Matan who frequently said, “peace, Ya man.” Now that is one hell of a mom.

Ruchama was not the only one who shared a laugh by any stretch. (She was the only woman who showed me one of her tattoos but it just didn't seem right to ask to see the others.) Yesterday we met our new shlichim and rishonim... and boy do they laugh!

There were Lavi and Moran... they laugh. They will be our shlichim (along with Tehillah who was not there at our JAFI visit). Look at those smiles.

Then we met Doron and Abraham, Dotan the former gymnast, and Ran who loves to paint, as well as Lotem and Gili, who is an awesome handball player.

It feels dark in the tunnel. But we don’t jump out. We make it through, we laugh, we soar, and we thrive.

 

Jeffrey Korbman, Campaign Director, is participating in a JFNA National Campaign Directors Mission to Israel with Maxine B. Murnick, UJA Campaign Chair, Joan Schiffer Levinson, Women’s Philanthropy President, and Sarabeth Margolis Wizen, Women’s Philanthropy Director.