Love of Life Will Triumph Over Lust for Death

In a Chanukah Torah Journal article, Rabbi Elazar Muskin referenced a touching story about the aftermath of Hamas' October 7 mass casualty terrorist attack. Surprisingly, the story below appeared in the New York Times:

It happened on Sunday evening. Eylon Levy, a resident of Tel Aviv, received a plea in one of his WhatsApp groups. At 10 p.m. there would be a funeral for Bruna Valeanu, a 24-year-old killed at the music festival near Israel's border with Gaza on Saturday. Ms. Valeanu was a student at Tel Aviv University who had immigrated from Brazil, and most of her family was still abroad and would not arrive in time for her funeral. The hope: to have enough attendees that there would be a Minyan at her funeral. So, Mr. Levy, 32, got into his car with a friend, and they drove about 10 miles to the funeral. He said that these types of funerals, where a request has been sent out, usually have the highest attendance and the whole country comes out in force. Indeed, traffic came to a standstill more than a mile away from the entrance to the Yarkon Cemetery in Petah Tikva, where Ms. Valeanu would be buried. The line of cars trying to enter the cemetery was so long that many people parked them along the shoulder of the highway and began walking. Mr. Levy joined the "columns and columns and columns" of people on foot. "There must have been thousands from all across Israeli society," Mr. Levy said. He could not hear the ceremony. Only the reverberations of "amen" after prayers. The police asked people to leave before the burial took place. The crowd was too large, they said, and there was an ever-present threat of rockets. "On the one hand, it's heartwarming to see how everyone is coming together to embrace each other," Mr. Levy said. "But on the other, it's not heartwarming because we are all still heartbroken."

Our enemies declare that they love death more than we love life. That is why they will lose. Life and love are more powerful than any death-loving cult. History has shown this time and again. Long after those who love death attain that which they most fervently desire, those of us who love life will bury our dead, wipe away our tears, and rebuild our lives.

Hamas cannot build; it can only destroy, but it cannot destroy our love for life and our willingness to fight to protect our lives and our civilization. Those who support Hamas also cannot build; they spew hate toward us, but if you look at them you will notice that none of them have built anything of consequence: they are broken nations, broken organizations, and broken individuals.