This week, Pegman takes us to the cradle of civilization: Tel Saki, Syria. The country has been at war longer than Pegman has been mapping, so the pictures are confined to photo sphere and often feature shattered lands and cityscapes.
Thanks to J Hardy and his lovely missus Karen for hosting. 😀
I really was going to wait to write a story today, but this photo grabbed me and wouldn’t let go.
Genre: Historical Fiction
Word Count: 150
MOST HOLY PLACE
25 October 1973
My Dearest Y’hudit,
This morning, the doctor told me I’ll be home in time for our son’s Brit Milah. Unless he is a she. I would wink but my eyes no longer work.
Why on the holiest of holidays? One minute I’m davening in shul and the next I’m dodging tanks and enemy bullets. No time to break the fast.
I watched our field doctors bind the wounds of Egyptians. “Would Moses do the same?” I asked Baruch Levin, one of our medics.
He replied, “Talmud teaches, ‘He who saves one life… is as if he saves an entire universe.’ On the battlefield no life that can be saved should be lost.”
Later, one of his grateful patients blew Baruch’s righteous head off. It was the last thing I saw…forever.
I’m sorry to burden you, my beloved. I hope you can still love me.
Eem ahavah,
Amitai
Glossary
Brit Milah – Rite of Circumcision, performed when a baby boy is eight days old.
Davening – Praying
Shul – Orthodox term for synagogue
Eem ahavah – With Love
Rochelle Wisoff-Fields-Addicted to Purple 
Never any winners in war, Rochelle. A tragic, personal story of combat and loss. Your doctor comes across very strongly, his wonderful attitude to healing, regardless of who he helps. Tragically, it could be the loss of his sight that saves Amitai’s life. Beautifully done
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Dear Lynn,
I suppose it could be construed that the medic sacrificed himself for Amitai. You did understand that the medic died and that Amitai lost his sight? I tried to avoid confusion. Thank you.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Oh, yes I did understand that completely – sorry if my comment confused you. 🙂
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Okay…at any rate I turned the sentence a bit to make it even clearer. 😉 I dashed this one off pretty fast this morning.
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It’s sad but also life affirming Rochelle
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Really great war story, Rochelle. Kind of hard to write about this place and not have it be about war.
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Dear Josh,
It was one of those stories that begged to be written. Such desolation and violence and those who suffer are the innocents. At any rate, thank you.
shalom,
Rochelle
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Powerful story in so little words. Nothing is ever fair in war. Being the best you can be in the circumstance is what we pray for.
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Dear Jan,
It seems odd that the saying is “All’s fair in love and war,” doesn’t it? Thank you, m’luv.
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Oh my. That is heartbreaking. You’re right about Israeli medical personnel giving aid even to enemy combatants whilst the opposite is rarely if ever true.
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Dear James,
You get the prize for catching my main point of the story. Those are the stories that don’t reach CNN. Thank you.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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I suspect a lot of people reading these stories don’t see the distinction because they believe news outlets like CNN. More’s the pity.
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All death and maiming in war is tragic, and ultimately both wicked and futile. Leaders of nations have caused an enormous amount of suffering.
You’ve written a powerful piece, Rochelle.
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Dear Penny,
Wouldn’t it be amazing and wonderful if world leaders would find another way to settle their differences? Thank you.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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The wickedest of ironies. There are no winners in war. Beautifully captures the senselessness in all of it.
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Dear Karen,
Definitely no winners in war. Thank you.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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My gosh. I feel like I’ve been punched in the gut. That’s positively heart-wrenching. That unenlightened SOB thanks a doctor by killing him and blinding another. I think I know who’s going to hell and who isn’t. If stories are successes when they trigger a reaction, count this one an award winner.
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Dear Eric,
I couldn’t ask for higher praise. Not to mention that was the crux and point of the story. Thank you.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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So sad and so realistic. The difference between a religion that tells you to value all life and one that tells you every one of “them” must be exterminated and you’ll be rewarded in the next world for doing it.
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Dear Christine,
My point exactly. 😦 Thank you.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Dear Rochelle,
Once again you have gutted me with your words. Brings to mind one of Aesop’s Fables. This is not the one that I am going crazy trying to find but it is one that is closest to what I was thinking…
The Farmer and the Snake
One winter a farmer found a snake stiff and frozen with cold. He had compassion on it, and taking it up, placed it in his bosom. The warmth quickly revived the Snake, and resuming its natural instincts, bit its benefactor, inflicting on him a mortal wound. “Oh,” cried the farmer with his last breath, “I am rightly served for pitying a scoundrel.”
The lesson: The greatest kindness will not bind the ungrateful.
There are no winners in war…
Lotsa love,
Dale
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Dear Dale,
You also put me in mind of the Al Wilson’s song The Snake. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Vjfw7UHl_E
Nope. No winners in war. Of course, one of the points of the story is that Israeli doctors treat the enemy. I once saw a news story about a Palestinian child treated pro bono by Israeli doctors and his mother showed her gratitude by saying she would raise him to be a terrorist and kill the Israeli doctor and his people. I don’t understand that mindset.
Anyway…thank you for reading and commenting. Sorry about that gutting.. 😉 Okay. Not really.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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That song is definitely based on the same fable!
I bet there were some Palestinian doctors who dis the same (at least I like to think so..)
No, I’ll never understand that mindset either. It makes me sick.
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You captured kindness, fear, longing, cruelty and the telling of truth, no matter what the outcome, in your story. Pretty darn neat in 150-words.
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Dear Lish,
Thank you for your pretty darn neat comment. 😀 You made me smile.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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I am glad that picture took hold. It touched my story too, from a different perspective. There is a certain flag waviness in your story, exemplified by the picture. I like the way you have weaved your faith into the story, your feelings on war, to produce a tapestry in so few words.
While I read, the words, ‘There is no greater love.’ echoed inside my head.
Shalom, Rochelle, shalom.
Kelvin
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Dear Kelvin,
I noticed that we had different perspectives of the same site. It was the flag that drew me in and sent me packing to the trod the research trail. Thank you for your affirming comments. Yes, “Greater love…” stated by the greatest Jew of all. 😉 .
Shalom,
Rochelle
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How interesting that after reading the comments I have lost my own words to reply with – lol
still chewing on how
the medic died and that Amitai lost his sight
and how Alicia noted:
captured kindness, fear, longing, cruelty and the telling of truth….
ahhhh – nice fiction and nice comments – so alive
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Dear Yvette,
The medic was definitely showing kindness which was repaid with brutality. Thank you for chewing and commenting. 😉
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Lives changed in an instant. A very real, gritty portrayal of war.
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Dear Ali,
I wonder what would happen if leaders found other ways to settle differences. Thank you.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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What a compassionate medic Baruch was! The bitter irony in this sentence comes through so strongly: “Later, one of his grateful patients blew Baruch’s righteous head off.”
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Dear Magarisa,
I think this happens all too often in the Middle East. So much hatred and no forgiveness. Thank you for your kind words.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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A moving and powerful story, told with a directness & simplicity, conveys so much. Well done.
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Many thanks, whoever you are. 😀
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Hi Rochelle – the above comment is from me ! I sent it from my i-pad, & it came out as anonymous! Not my intention at all.
francineangelcakes
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