The war is old news, but I just want to draw your attention to . . .

Today, when talking to my father on the phone, he told me about an initiative spearheaded in the US by National Council of Young Israel in which anyone who wanted to could get the name of a soldier to daven for. I told him that I was davening for a speedy and complete recovery for Aharon Karov, the officer who missed his Shabbat Chatan and his Shabbat Sheva Brachot (he came back in between for his wedding) to be at the front with his unit. He, along with several others, was seriously wounded when he entered a rigged house. My father commented on the fact that there is a halachah which says that the groom may not go out into war during his first year of marriage. This only applies to a war of expansion. However, for a war which defends the borders of Eretz Yisrael, even a groom leaves his new home. I would like to share with you a partial (weak - sorry!) translation of an article written in last week's Basheva newspaper, in which Aharon's father, a rosh yeshiva in Karnei Shomron, comments:

In the weekly bulletin, "Rosh Yehudi", Rav Karov publicized an article which wove the major issue in with the private situation. "My ears have heard many expressions of surprise, even anger, over the fact that the groom left the bride. Can we not get along without him? Is there not still a mitzvah to make his wife happy?" He explains further: "Chachamim teach us God's Torah. They do not look at reality from a limited personal perspective. Neither human intelligence nor ever-changing emotions dictate the order of life and its values, rather the Divine ethic. The Chachamim teach us a great, yet simple lesson - the building of our personal and married lives draws its sustenance only from its connection to the larger community. . . It only has significance because it is part of the holiness of the Jewish nation . . ."

Yet another reason we came. I have always felt that we are part of a greater whole that is more important than us as individuals. Now I understand that the strength and power of us as individuals stems from the fact that we are part of a greater whole.