Day Eight in Netivot

Shavua Tov! At least I pray it will be! This will be a short post as my Tehillim beckons I come quickly. I have just heard that our ground forces are entering Gaza on foot. This evening 2 minutes after my husband left for Maariv, we heard another siren (I didn't count how many this Shabbat; at least we slept well last night! :) As often happens, there were several rockets aimed to the same area one after the other. The first landed in Sedot Negev, and where we heard a moderate boom. Then, we heard the famous "shriek" I've heard about, but never heard before, and a horrendous BOOOOOOOOOM that made all our windows shake. Up the street there is a neighborhood of prefabricated wooden houses. The residents were told by pikud ha'oref to evacuate them. Not everyone did. Witnessing the complete collapse of the home I can only say thank G-d that the woman inside was only slightly wounded.

My eyes teared up as I saw the video of our infantry making their way into Gaza through Arutz 7. I called my friends from our Shabbat Tehillim group (we stopped several times this Shabbat and last to move to a "protected space" due to sirens) to alert them. We ladies will wage our war in the time honored Jewish tradition: with our Tehillim and prayer books! I use this forum to ask a favor of everyone: that we all take upon ourselves to adhere more strictly to something, so that Hashem guard our troops with the merit of that particular mitzva. Everyone knows his/ her weaknesses. It doesn't have to be anything grandiose. It could be deciding to make our blessings slowly aloud ; throwing out an article of clothing that we know is not 100% modest; learning 2 halachot of Shmirat Ha'lashon daily. Whatever. May we hear only good news from the front. And once again, SHAVUA TOV!