Close to Death and Yet Far From It

Good to Know
Written By Jahan Berns

How many times have we heard the statement that “You never truly know or appreciate what you have until it’s taken away”? This brave Israeli paratrooper fighting in Gaza is sounding a clarion call to action: Appreciate your lives and your loved ones before it’s too late! Here are excerpts from his moving letter:

“Shalom: By now you may have heard that I am back for a brief period.  Really relieved to be freely connecting with you now.

I don’t really know what to say after the last 24 days on the front lines other than “thank you!” The miracles that we have witnessed- miracles that enabled all of us to come home safely is nothing short of God’s hand at work.

I credit all of you for your prayers. Your prayers helped deflect the direction of the RPGs that were fired at us from different ambushes. Your prayers redirected the enemy’s bullets flying over our heads and next to our ears as we tried to regroup and neutralize the threats before us.

Israeli soldiers operate on the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip, January 3, 2024.

Photo by Flash90

I say with absolute certainty, not as a preacher, but if you didn’t believe in God before, I don’t know what else to tell you because not a single person on my team can explain how we all came out alive virtually unscathed considering the circumstances we underwent.  I’m not talking close calls- I’m talking like death encounters- it’s like walking blindfolded on a tight rope between two mountains.  God is good.  So, thank you all for your prayers, they really work, and we still need them!

Important to note that the job isn’t finished.  There is still work to do, we still have a very big fight coming up and as we speak soldiers are encountering intense battles. Many are giving their lives so that we can live peacefully. The heroic sacrifice can’t be understated. I know it may sounds like just a modest number of soldiers killed, but each of these people are me. Are you. Are us. Family, friends, eagerly awaiting to see their loved ones again and they never will. יהי זכרם ברוך (may they rest in peace).

As a first-hand account, we witnessed what we all already knew - Hamas uses children, schools, hospitals as launch points for terror. We found tunnels in a school. We found RPGs and ammo in a hospital that we took over. We even saw terrorists using 3 of the hostages as human shields as a lure to bait us into a shoot-out. The inhumanity is outrageous!

These terrorists have waited a decade(s) for this moment and are certainly ready to die for their cause. But I tell you with great certainty: Our people have waited millennia to have peace against far greater odds, and peace will be had by any means necessary.  Like we say every Pesach (Passover) at the seder: “the Torah is what kept our fathers and it’s what keeps us surviving. Not only one arose and tried to destroy us, rather in every generation someone rises and tries to destroy us, but God saves us from their hands.” It’s just that simple.

I urge all of you to please appreciate your lives, your loved ones, your ability to turn on a light at nightime, your ability to go to a bathroom, to shower, to switch your socks, to not hear a boom every 30 seconds, to not jolt at the thought of another ambush, to not smell the horrible smell of burning bodies, of not being shot at, to never ever have to hear the scream of an RPG approaching and then exploding a few feet in front of you and have such panic not knowing which way will be more safe (to the right or to the left)- as the bullets start flying at you as you dive to the ground; to not shoot at someone shooting at you; to never see this type of devastation.

I urge you to enjoy tranquility because we are fighting so that you can all live and enjoy life. Celebrate that life. Go out. Have fun. Have a drink. Eat well. Hug and kiss a loved one. Be successful. Hate sparingly and love endlessly. Live. Give. Pray. Dream. Be proud. Love well!

I don’t want you all to get the wrong idea. As close as we all are to death, we couldn’t be farther from it. Our spirits are HIGH.  The fighting Jew has sustained so many difficulties and the fighting Jew cannot be broken. We are not scared. We are warriors. We are not deterred by some terrorists living under the ground, we are lions who will hunt them down and will find our prey in order to survive. We want our honor back and honor we be restored. And through all the terrorists that we have killed with the help of God, we stand to answer the call to protect Jews and all of humanity. I don’t think there could be a more special or worthy cause than this one and I am humbled to be answering this call in such fashion. I hope that my grandfather, who stormed the beaches of Normandy to restore humanity from the Nazis, is looking down and smiling at what his only grandson is accomplishing in his attempt to stand in his giant shadow and the shadow of all of the fighting Jews in history.

Do not stop praying. We need to continue. We will continue. Not because we want to, but because we have to. I love you all and appreciate you all in my life. Genuinely. You have all made me who I am today and your strength enables me to do what I am doing.

As always - stay strong. Stay united. Perhaps if my chapter here will be over soon, I pray to God that I never forget this feeling of pride in being a fighting Jew, to be a part of the history of our people that actually can fight.  I do this for all of you. All of your families. All of our ancestors. I do this most of all for peace, because we all deserve that fundamental human right.” Am Yisrael Chai!

Your Paratrooper,

“X”

I hope the above letter inspired and encouraged you. On behalf of JH Israel, I want to welcome you to 2024. As we look forward to all that the Lord is going to do this year, we look ahead with courage and hope. For us, our families, our country, and Israel: we remain confident of this- we will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. (Psalm 27:13)

Happy new year!

Best,

Jahan Berns

We are in a critical time in history for the nation of Israel. Want to engage more?

Jahan Berns
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