|
Mr. President,
Dear Families,
Distinguished Guests,
At this hour, thousands of bereaved families, here and at all the military cemeteries, are visiting the graves of their loved ones, the cherished of the nation, who fell in Israel’s battles. The rows of humble gravestones pass through every city and village in Israel, long and uniform. On every stone there is simply ranks and a name, personal number and date – and that is nearly everything. However, every fallen soldier is an entire world – a life cut off in its prime, and encompassing chapters in childhood and youth, school and the army, a soul which amassed memories and deeds, feelings, thoughts and experiences, aspirations and plans. The fallen gave their lives for us, but they craved life. Death came upon them suddenly, and “the song of their lives was ended in the middle.”
In the heart of every citizen of Israel is concealed the painful recognition of the cost of liberty, security and defense of the home and of the best and most precious of that which we created and built here. However, for you, dear families, this is not only a recognition, but rather a calamity which befell your homes, and a dark shadow thrust over you all at once. It is you, who were closest to them, who are connected to your loved ones by the bonds of a love which does not fade away, and longings which do not end. They are burned on your consciousness in infinite contexts, they visit you constantly in flashes of painful memory, day and night, and the burden of grief resides within you always, dull and somber, and does not relent.
We would ask – would that we could – to comfort you, to lessen your grief, to distance you from the cloud of sorrow. However, this is not in our power, because words are too tired and hollow to contain your pain. All we can do is embrace you with love, reach out to you with a loyal, nurturing and strengthening hand, to share with you in some way the heavy burden.
The debt which the State of Israel owes to its fallen is great and vast. With their blood, we earned our revival, with their souls they defended it from every foe and enemy. Because of them, it is strong and prosperous, and its achievements are numerous and wondrous. Therefore, on the eve of Independence Day, Israel remembers its heroes, mourns their loss and bestows on them endless gratitude.
The Remembrance Day for Israel’s Fallen Soldiers is a day of purification and sanctification. As we approach the State of Israel’s 58th Independence Day, we will banish every argument and disagreement from within ourselves. We will remember that the fallen have ensured our sovereignty and freedom, they were comrades-in-arms, brothers in self-sacrifice and love of the homeland, without difference in outlook and community, city dwellers and country dwellers, development towns, settlements, kibbutzim and moshavim, distressed neighborhoods and wealthy suburbs; Jews, Druze, Muslim and Christian together as one – all deserve glory.
The poet Yitzhak Shalev, a Jerusalemite, in “A Poem for Our Sons”, wrote:
“It is they whose eyes were filled with wondrous wines
And the boats of their eyes sailed on lakes of secrets –
They are, and of all griefs, there is none sadder than these,
And of all the memories, there is none like their memories…”
May the memory of Israel’s fallen soldiers be blessed and forever engraved on the hearts of the people of Israel.
|