{"id":52078,"date":"2019-03-26T00:02:52","date_gmt":"2019-03-25T22:02:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=52078"},"modified":"2022-10-17T17:54:55","modified_gmt":"2022-10-17T14:54:55","slug":"the-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-return\/","title":{"rendered":"The Return"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cThe Lord your God will then turn your captivity and have compassion upon you, and will return and gather you from the midst of all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you\u201d (Deuteronomy 30:3).<\/span><\/p>\n

She came back.<\/span>
\n<\/span>After so many years of waiting,<\/span>
\n<\/span>Hoping, fearing, praying, despairing,<\/span>
\n<\/span>My wife came back<\/span>
\n<\/span>From Over There.<\/span><\/p>\n

And after the embrace,<\/span>
\n<\/span>The kiss, the tears,<\/span>
\n<\/span>We returned<\/span>
\n<\/span>To our life together<\/span>
\n<\/span>Here. <\/span><\/p>\n

And the days pass.<\/span>
\n<\/span>She wears slippers in the house again<\/span>
\n<\/span>As she used to;<\/span>
\n<\/span>She puts milk and sugar in her coffee again,<\/span>
\n<\/span>She leans back in her chair<\/span>
\n<\/span>And even smiles at me again<\/span>
\n<\/span>As she used to,<\/span>
\n<\/span>Before she was ripped away from me<\/span>
\n<\/span>And taken<\/span>
\n<\/span>Over There.<\/span><\/p>\n

But she never talks<\/span>
\n<\/span>About what happened,<\/span>
\n<\/span>What they did to her,<\/span>
\n<\/span>What she lived through,<\/span>
\n<\/span>If that could be called \u2018living.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

But at night,<\/span>
\n<\/span> When she lies next to me in her nightgown,<\/span>
\n<\/span> I see the scars,<\/span>
\n<\/span> The bruises that do not heal,<\/span>
\n<\/span> The cuts,<\/span>
\n<\/span> The gashes.<\/span>
\n<\/span> She says nothing.<\/span>
\n<\/span> Nothing.<\/span><\/p>\n

But sometimes<\/span>
\n<\/span> She wakes up in the middle of a nightmare<\/span>
\n<\/span> Mumbling words<\/span>
\n<\/span> In a language I do not understand,<\/span>
\n<\/span> Shaking, crying.<\/span>
\n<\/span> I cradle her thin body in my arms;<\/span>
\n<\/span> I wipe her cheeks,<\/span>
\n<\/span> I try to comfort my wife<\/span>
\n<\/span> As I whisper her name, \u201c<\/span>Bat-Tzion<\/span><\/i>,\u201d<\/span>
\n<\/span> As I stroke her hair.<\/span><\/p>\n

image: Ephraim Moshe Lillien, Bat-Tzion, detail from\u00a0Von Ghetto nach Zion,<\/em>\u00a01902 \/ flickr<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":98380,"id":98380,"title":"neh1-bat zion","filename":"neh1-bat-zion.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/neh1-bat-zion.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-return-2\/neh1-bat-zion\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"neh1-bat-zion","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":98379,"date":"2021-10-17 14:58:45","modified":"2022-10-17 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