Yaffa Glick Two Years Ago: "Hashem Lifted Me from the Ashes"

Two years ago, while her husband Yehuda was in critical condition following an assassination attempt, Yaffa gave an inspiring interview to 'Peninim'. Now, with the roles reversed and Yaffa herself in need of Heaven's mercy, the people of Israel are asked to offer prayers for her.

The assassination attempt on Yaffa's husband, Yehuda, occurred two years ago. Before the stunned eyes of his wife, an Arab assassin shot four bullets at point-blank range. Yehuda was critically wounded, and the Glick family, with their eight children, demonstrated family resilience, strength, and faith.

When interviewer Adi Aharon asked where she draws the strength and faith to stand firm in the face of trials, Yaffa smiled humbly. "I didn't recruit anything. It's all Him (Hashem) who gives. I don't attribute anything to myself; it's all free gifts from Him. By nature, I'm very weak, but He strengthens and gives the strength. In short, He takes care of me throughout the years."

When Yaffa talks about "throughout the years," she refers to the challenging trials she has endured. Trials that would have succeeded in breaking the spirit of many, but instead strengthened her and made her who she is today.

At the age of twenty-three, in the first month of her second pregnancy, her first husband Dudi z"l was diagnosed with a serious illness. "The same week we found out I was pregnant, we learned he was ill. And so for eight months he waned while I filled with life. The day after we got up from shiva, our daughter Avital was born." They chose the name Avital together because it means the dew of the resurrection of the dead, and on the other hand, it's not "heavy on the shoulders" of the child who carries it.

"Dudi z"l was very aware and quickly understood the severity of his situation. He was Hashem's messenger to prepare me for the period after. I remember not wanting to hear, and he told me I needed to remarry. Even when he was on his deathbed, surrounded by the whole family, he told them: Know that it's important to me that Yaffa remarries. My mother-in-law took it as a will and acted to make it happen, while I still couldn't think about it."

Within a year of the mourning, Yaffa married Yehuda, and today, Dudi z"l's parents and Yehuda's parents are good friends who even vacation together.

Yehuda Glick (Photo: Flash 90)

"Every relationship needs a lot of prayer and investment; it's work," she says honestly. "I see myself in a place of struggle, not as someone who gives advice. We think oppositely about almost everything; it's not harmonious, but there's a lot of mutual respect between us. Often I'm annoyed that he doesn't think like me, but I feel it's my stand before Hashem, not against him. I've learned this over the years, both in enjoyable things and in difficult ones - my husband is Hashem's messenger for my work with Him. B"H, there are also many bonuses."

"I'm always in a struggle, looking up to the heavens. I feel He hears prayers"

"People tell us: you're inspiring," Yaffa recounts in surprise and humility. "It's not that everything works out perfectly for me. I'm always struggling, looking up to the heavens. He doesn't always answer me as I want, but I feel He hears prayers. That's my most fundamental experience."

Feeling Hashem's love, especially in times of difficulty and lack, is Yaffa Glick's motto. "Thank Hashem who granted me that today this faith is something I've acquired," Yaffa shares. "It's a muscle I've been exercising, and I still practice, a lot of time, so thank Hashem it's now well trained. But I had trials when I wasn't yet in this place and had a lot of anger. I have no solutions for others, only stories about myself I can tell. B"H, Hashem saved me from every trouble - even if it was with blood, sweat, and tears."

"We've already gone through many difficult times," Yaffa, full of faith, says. "And I can sum them up in the words of King David in Psalms, 'from every trouble He delivered me.' When our son Hallel was born with a heart defect, and for that reason, we named him Hallel, which stands for 'The Healer of the Brokenhearted' - I left work and stayed with him at home for six years because he underwent open-heart surgeries repeatedly. And today, the child comes for a check-up once a year and that's the extent of his problem. Another of our sons, Neriya David, was six when he was severely burned at the camp he attended. He was hospitalized in intensive care for half a year, and then it took another full year for his rehabilitation. He was in a state where I would close my eyes for a moment and wouldn't know if when I opened them, I would see a child. Today, thank Hashem, Neriya David is married and a father to a child. So the feeling that Hashem hears prayer is so strong that I simply know Hashem wants to do us good even in the current trouble."

"I have a small MP3 player on which I constantly listen to Torah lessons from different rabbis," Yaffa shares. "With it, I go to sleep and with it, I wake up in the morning. These charges strengthen me both in routine and on the day of the announcement."

Towards the end of the conversation, the interviewer refers to the Glick family's two daughters, now fourteen, who were fostered from a children's home when they were four years old. "Sometimes I forget I didn't give birth to them," Yaffa says.

In response to the interviewer's question: "What drives a mother of six to foster two more daughters?" Yaffa responds humbly: "I've been through many very dramatic things in life, and Hashem lifted me really from the ashes. I felt that hosting an *l'chaim* was nice, but I needed to do a much more significant project to thank Hashem, and the girls were a kind of a thank you project. That’s how we started, and Yehuda, of course, with his big heart, didn't need much convincing. Always after we married and I came with my two children, I told him I couldn't bring myself to take two children who were not mine and raise them as if they were. And behold, it turns out he was a good teacher for me..."

Yaffa the hero needs our prayers now. Please offer prayers for the complete recovery of Yaffa bat Leah among the rest of Israel's ill.