As I sit at my desk and pen these words, on the eve of the new year, as Rosh Hashana 5785 prepares to enter, and Elul 5784 prepares to depart, the face of Ori Danino HY”D smiles at me.  Ori’s smile beams from the card I received from his mother, Einav, a few months ago, when she was visiting Woodmere, NY, speaking in different schools (including to my son’s school, HANC High School, Uniondale NY), which sits on my desk. Everywhere she went and spoke, Einav handed out this card.  

It is the picture of Ori HY”D that we are all familiar with: his broad smile, sunglasses perched atop his head, wearing the North Face black jacket with tan colored sleeves.  On the back of the card are printed two chapters of Tehillim: Chapter 27, after which Ori was named, and Chapter 100, to remind us to always give thanks to Hashem. On the bottom, under the chapters of Tehillim, it says “Please daven for the safe return of Ori ben Einav Efrat.” 

The last video that remains of Ori with his family is from last year, Sukkot 5784, singing songs of closeness to Hashem, in the family Succah.  A few days later, he was abducted. Ori Danino, 25 years old, as we all know, was kidnapped from the Nova Music Festival, and after close to eleven months in hellish captivity, was murdered by his captor terrorists y’s along with five other kedoshim (Hersh, Alex, Carmel, Eden, Almog HY”D).

Now, Ori’s smile and his “light - Ori” remain forever, a reminder to us all of the beauty of life, the simchas ha’chaim we must all strive to live with, emulating Ori’s ways, and that every moment is a gift to be cherished.  

לְדָוִד ה’, אוֹרִי וְיִשְׁעִי--מִמִּי אִירָא - a Psalm to David, Hashem is my Light and my Salvation, from whom shall I fear? ה’ מָעוֹז-חַיַּי  מִמִּי אֶפְחָד, Hashem is the Strength of my life, from whom shall I be afraid? (Tehillim 27:1; Tehillim 27 is recited twice daily during Elul and the chagim of Tishrei.  This is the verse after which Ori was named when he was born).  

On my desk, next to the card with Ori’s picture, is another card, this one fold-able, with the smiling face of Amichai Shimon Rubin HY”D.  On the outside of the card is Amichai Shimon, dressed in his IDF uniform and gear, holding a very large machine gun, his beret perched atop his head, with an incredibly large, laugh-type-of-smile on his face.  On the inside of the card, in the top corner are the letters בס״ד (b’siyata d’Shmaya, with the help of Heaven), and then is printed “Tefilah todah la’Borei Olam!” (exclamation mark in the original) (“A Prayer of Thanks to the Creator of the World!”).  

The Todah prayer ends with the following words (it is in Ivrit, translation here is my own): “Thank you for the incredible life You have given me.  Thank you for every small matter that I have, for You have given everything I have to me, and there is no one other than You.  Thank You that You always hear my prayers, Creator of the world.  I request forgiveness from the depths of my heart if there were times that I did not appreciate what You gave me, and in the place of saying ‘thank You’ I only complained.  אני עפר ואפר ואתה בורא העולם אנא אל תרחק ממני לעולם - I am but dust and ashes, and You are the Creator of the world, please, do not be distant from me forever.”

Sgt. Amichay Shimon Rubin, 23, a Golani Brigade soldier from Akko, was fatally wounded October 7, and succumbed to his wounds on October 10.  When the Hamas invasion began, Amichay was stationed at an IDF outpost near Kissufim. With the start of the rocket-fire, he ran barefoot to the reinforced area on base for protection. When they realized that terrorists were inside the base, he and his commander, Capt. Shilo Rauchberger, took up position at the entrance to the room, and engaged in a firefight for several hours with the terrorists.

Amichay was wounded in his arm and then his leg but continued to fight, survivors said, until he was shot in the head, and even managed to keep fighting for 20 minutes before losing strength. He was brought hours later to the hospital, with a serious gunshot wound to the head. Doctors were unable to save him, and his family asked that his organs be donated, and his liver, lungs and kidneys saved five lives, including the life of an 8-year-old boy.

He was buried on October 12, 2023 on Har Herzl in J'lem. He is survived by his parents, Batya and Yishai, and his seven siblings, David, Odaya, Amiya, Yedidya, Oz, Eitan and Yair.

After finishing high school, Amichay spent four years studying at a yeshiva in Petah Tikva before enlisting in Golani at age 22.  According to a memorial site set up by his family, Amichay was “real, opinionated, stubborn and tough, he wasn’t afraid to stand by his beliefs. He was a man of truth and justice, but he also knew how to be sensitive to them. In conversations with friends, he gave them his full attention… always with great humility.”

His former teacher, Rabbi Avraham Seidman, described Amichay as “a sweet and humble guy, with a unique glow in his face… he always exhibited joy and vitality. In the beit midrash he was as gentle as a worm, and on the battlefield he was as tough as wood. A hero in the war of Torah and a hero in the war to protect the people and the land.”

His sister, Odaya, said that “he’s my younger brother but I learned so much from him, and I’m taking so much from him with me in my life. My children are little so I don’t know what they will remember, but they will always know who he was.”  His mother Batya said Amichay was “sweet, full of life, with a good heart, on the one hand, but a great deal of stubbornness, on the other hand… his kindness spread to everyone around him” (https://www.timesofisrael.com/sgt-amichay-rubin-23-golani-soldier-whose-organs-saved-5-lives/). 

As I sat to pen these words, at my desk, on the eve of R”H 5785, I did not know what to write.  Who of us, last year on the eve of R”H, could have envisioned the year ahead?  According to the Arutz Sheva website, at the time of this writing: Today is Day 359 of the war; 255 hostages were kidnapped: 154 were rescued and 101 remain in captivity; 1664 kedoshim have fallen or were murdered, including 715 IDF soldiers, 879 civilians, and 70 police officers and security agents (https://www.israelnationalnews.com/).

Rosh Hashana is known as Yom ha’Teruah, the day of the shofar blast; Rosh Hashana, the New Year (lit. ‘head’ of the year); Yom ha’Din, the day of Judgement, and Yom Ha’Zikaron, the Day of Remembrance, for Hashem is the Zocher kol ha’nish’kachos - He remembers all actions and deeds that man forgets and He takes those into accounting at the time of Judgement.

Perhaps on this R”H, let us emulate the ways of Hashem (see Sotah 14a and Shabbos 133b).  As He remembers, so too, we must remember.  None of us can remember the individual life stories of 1664 fallen - may Hashem have mercy upon us!  

But we can all remember someone.  We can ensure their memories are for a blessing and never forgotten; we can learn something about their lives which is worthy of reflection and contemplation; we can study their picture, because ‘aino domeh she’miah l’re’iyah’ (because a picture is worth a thousand words); we can be inspired to live a little bit higher, bring more simcha to this world, do more for the klal, love the Land a little bit more, and connect to Hashem in a deeper fashion so that we live lives that are Mekadesh Shem Shomayim.

The fallen will not be remembered for life, but for the lives they lived, they must be remembered.

Next to the picture of Amichai Rubin, are the words from the verse in Hoshea 2:1:

וְהָיָה בִּמְקוֹם אֲשֶׁר-יֵאָמֵר לָהֶם, לֹא-עַמִּי אַתֶּם, יֵאָמֵר לָהֶם, בְּנֵי אֵ-ל-חָי - and it shall come to pass that, instead of saying to them, "You are not My people," it shall be said to them, "The children of the living G-d.”

As 5784 comes to a close, b’chasdei Hashem, we have seen the Yad Chazakah (Strong Hand) and Zero’a Netuyah (Outstretched Arm) of the RS”O decimating our enemies before our eyes.  We continue to hope and pray that the miraculous salvation that we are witnessing is the beginning of the unfolding of the Ultimate Redemption.  For on that great day, it will not be said that “You are not My nation.”  On that great day, we will understand, and the whole world along with us, that “We are children of the Living G-d.”  

Ami-chai - My nation, the nation of Israel, lives.

Ori - and it is in the Light of Hashem that we walk and go.  אַשְׁרֵ֣י הָ֖עָם יֹֽדְעֵ֣י תְרוּעָ֑ה ה’ בְּאֽוֹר־פָּנֶ֥יךָ יְהַלֵּכֽוּן - fortunate is the nation that knows the shofar blast; Hashem in the Light of Your countenance they walk (Tehillim 89:16).

May we merit, for our nation and our Land, our holy city of Yerushalayim, and Har Tzion, a shana tova u’mesuka - a year that is only sweet and always good, amen v’amen.  

B’birkas kesiva v’chasima tova.