Spotlight on the Mothers of the Three Kidnapped Boys

According to Jewish custom, when something is needed for someone, good health, rescue, a "match" to marry etc., the person is identified as son or daughter of the mother. For other types of identification, a person is called as son or daughter of the father's name. Chazal, our sages say that nobody prays harder than a mother.

I'm finding it very interesting that the main spokespeople representing the families of the three teenagers who were kidnapped over a week ago by Arab terrorists have been the mothers. I don't know exactly how this decision was made, but I consider it a good one. Listen to Racheli Frankel, mother of Naftali being interviewed by CNN.

The mother of one of three kidnapped Israeli teenagers granted a television interview to CNN over the weekend to drum up international attention for her plight in hopes that it would expedite the return of her son.“Everybody's working under the assumption that they are alive,” Rachel Frankel, the mother of Naftali Frankel, told Ben Wedeman of CNN. “Beyond that we don't know much.”
The kidnappings of Fraenkel, Eyal Yifrach, 19, and Gil-Ad Sha’er, 16, took place while they were hitchhiking in Area C of the West Bank, which is under exclusive Israeli control. (Jerusalem Post)

I honestly don't know where she gets her strength from. May her son be returned safe and sound along with the two other boys.

Over ten years ago, I wrote about my feelings "A Club I Don’t Want to Join" concerning my too many friends who are bereaved parents.  I used to send out letters, which I called "musings" to friends and those who requested to be added to the list. That was before I began to blog. It was the popularity of those "musings" that got me to blog. And yes, that's why this blog is called "Shiloh Musings."

Musings #13May 22, 2003
A Club I Don’t Want to Join
The other night I was at a beautiful, joyous wedding. The bride was one of the younger daughters of people I have known since my teens. When she smiled I went back almost forty years, when I first knew her mother.
I knew quite a few people there, but not from our mutual past. These friends have something in common with the parents of the bride. They are all bereaved parents; one of their children was killed by Arab terrorists.
They are all members of a club I don’t want to join. The parents of the bride are veteran members. She befriends other parents whose children are killed to help them rejoin and regain “normal life.” Everyone could see the joy she, her husband and parents get from her surviving children and grandchildren.
The Arab terrorists murder and maim Jews. They cause great pain to the surviving family and friends, BUT THEY CANNOT DESTROY US. We are surviving, and we will always survive! We survived slavery in Egypt. We survived Haman in Persia. We survived the Greeks. We survived the Crusaders. We survived the Inquisition. We survived the Nazi Holocaust, and we will survived these murderers and all of their supporters.
I have no doubts.
Every generation has its challenges and its heroes.

May Naftali Fraenkel, Eyal Yifrach, 19, and Gil-Ad Sha’er, 16  all speedily and safely return home and resume their normal lives.