August 29, 2025

GThere was a shooting this week at a church in Minneapolis. Two children were killed, eighteen people were wounded, and the entire student body was traumatized. In a TV news report this morning, I watched as a 7-year old girl who had been there described the ordeal. Her father then turned to the interviewer and said, “Yesterday, my daughter stopped being a child. She had to grow up very fast.” I’ve been considering that all day, and this is what it made me think of:

In late August 1999, when my children were still small, I led a tour to Israel. As there were things for me to set up in advance, my children and I went in June and spent the summer in Tel Aviv. They attended Israeli day camp and museum art classes, but by 2:00 PM each day, we were together to explore and live the Tel Aviv life. My children were always pretty well-behaved, but my then four-year-old son had energy to jump and climb whenever we got on a bus and he wanted to look out the window or dance in the aisle. Whenever I tried to discipline him, other people on the bus would always reprimand me with comments,  “Leave him alone. He’s just a little boy. He’s just having fun. Let him be happy.”

Frustrated with the interference of strangers, I mentioned this to an Israeli friend of mine, another young mother. She replied that in Israel, the fact that everyone goes into the army at 18 means that Israeli adults want the children to be free and happy, and to have fun for as long as they can. Leave him alone. Let him be happy.

When my parents took us to live in Israel in the 1970s, my big brother and sister each had a class in school called Gadnah, essentially a course in pre-army training. My sister still remembers the day when, in her Gadnah class, she and the other 13-year-olds had to jump off a roof.  She was scared, and the teacher reassuringly said, “Don’t worry. You and I will count to three and then we’ll jump together, okay?”  My sister agreed and they counted to three, at which point the teacher pushed her off the roof.  Alone. That’s how it goes. Get ready. No choice.

The IDF is a miraculous and beautiful army. Their training is second to none, especially when you consider at what age they start preparing. When I was visiting Auschwitz, I saw a group of IDF commanders-in-training visiting, too. Apparently, they are brought to Auschwitz to see, and always remember, why they and the future soldiers under their command are fighting.

My prayer, on this Shabbat and always, is that children everywhere can be children.  Without fear of shootings in churches, without running from playgrounds showered with rockets, and without terrorists infiltrating their peace. The reality of the world is there for the rest of us. The kids?  Leave them alone. Let them be happy.

Am Yisrael Chai!