Yehoram Gaon Reflects on Family Day: "Our Hearts Aren't Ready for Celebrations Today. Let's Be Brothers Instead"

This past weekend marked Family Day, but Yehoram Gaon couldn’t bring himself to celebrate as if nothing had happened.

In an emotional post to social media, Gaon wrote: "Family Day, and as I read on Google, 'In the past, Mother's Day was celebrated on the Hebrew date of the 30th of Shevat, a time when families gather for an annual celebration. This is a beloved tradition in which Israeli families engage in quality time with loved ones to strengthen bonds and create lasting memories for years to come.' A day to create shared memories for the years ahead—just think for a moment about the seventh day of that dreadful month, reflecting on this sentence—how many families among us would rather not remember this day, this year when they shattered into pieces. And what terrifying memories will remain in their hearts that they wouldn't want to pass on to future generations?"

Gaon continued by writing that amidst the terrible disaster that befell Israel, there are still "families living in a nightmare because a son or brother, father, mother, or sister—are still trapped in tunnels, in darkness and dampness, and it is impossible to reach out to them with a rescuing or supporting hand. Who would want to remember such horror? And how many families will never forget the knock at the door? The poet Rachel Eitan, a bereaved mother, eloquently described the moment: 'That mine that exploded not in a field, but in the middle of the living room. There we were, sitting together, laughing. And suddenly everything shattered, and all our limbs scattered and flew through the windows, and the house is empty. No one lives in it anymore. Only hovering spirits come and go. Close souls distance, solitary, silenced, searching and returning with empty hands, and they do not speak. Silence hovers between the curtains.'

Gaon concluded his post by bearing the burden together with the families, so many of whom have had their lives changed forever. "How many families, to their sorrow, have experienced this painful experience, after which the home that was their home is no longer the same. The heart is not free today for celebrations of family harmony. The collective heart of all of us must feel today in its entirety, a moment from the day of a family that joined the grieving family. Our collective heart must today feel just a moment of what the families are going through, moving between loss and existence, in desperate helplessness, without knowledge of their loved ones in the abyss of hell. On this Family Day—let's all try to be brothers," he concludes.