Where were you when you found out about October 7th attack

amother

↑ OP ↓

Wed, Jul 24 2024, 1:57 am

amother NeonBlue wrote:

I posted about this on a different thread.

In US.
On chol hamoed, I found out the baby I was carrying had passed away. It was a difficult Yom Tov personally. My husband told me that the Rav said Shmini Atzeres is a powerful day for tefila so I tried to daven.
Didn’t know a thing until after YT.
And not even right away.
I started doing my chores and clean up before checking my phone because I didn’t want to get distracted.
My husband always checks his phone right away.
I noticed he was upstairs for longer than usual.
Then he came to me and in a very careful way, he said, you might want to check your phone and also make sure your brothers are ok. (They live in Israel).
I thought, ‘the last time he spoke to me in that careful way was the day of the attack on Pittsburgh’ so I knew it was bad.

Then I checked my phone and found out.
May Hashem have mercy on Klal Yisrael.

I'm so sorry. You went from a personal tragedy to a communal one.

amother

Burntblack

Wed, Jul 24 2024, 2:01 am

Was away for shabbos in beit shemesh. I was in a very low mood to begin with, not for any particular reason. Woke up to the sirens at 8:30 or so. We went to shul with the kids but it was very nerve wracking, I was shaking. We could see the trails from all the rockets overhead, and see helicopters hovering around. We had no idea what was happening but it looked bad. After Yom tov when I read the news and saw it was even worse than I imagined, I got so sick, I was up all night boiling hot and shaking and vomiting. We went home to Jerusalem the next day. I couldn't eat anything for two days, the more news came out the worse I felt. I was constantly planning hiding places for my kids and imagining horrible situations lol aleinu.

amother

Bottlebrush

Wed, Jul 24 2024, 3:49 am

I was home in Ramat Bet Shemesh. It was before 8 and I was trying to sleep but kept hearing booms and thinking that my neighbors were being unusually noisy. Then my husband came home from shul to tell me that there are rockets flying in the south and the Rav said not to bring the kids to shul, only those above Bar Mitzva. That was when I realized I had been hearing booms from Gaza, which I remembered from the last war - somehow in Ramat Bet Shemesh you can hear the bombing in Azza pretty clearly. We stayed home all day but my husband saw people leaving their homes / driving in uniform, and understood that there was a war.

But I had no idea what had happened until motzai Shabbos, and even then didn't realize the extent for another day or two, as the casualty count kept rising.

Very early on, we decided not to watch anything graphic or even not so graphic, so as not to be traumatized. As we still needed to function and be strong for our children who did not have proper school for a few weeks (or longer) and themselves were in the midst of a war, we needed to make sure they would feel safe. So doing things for chayalim was fine, and saying tehillim was fine. But crying or talking about what happened, or even dwelling on what happened was not okay (we did cry sometimes but tried not to around the kids). Even today, I try not to think about what happened, and focus on what I can do.

May Hashem protect all klal Yisrael, bring the hostages home, and keep our chayalim safe.

amother

Hunter

Wed, Jul 24 2024, 4:51 am

I was asleep in bed and heard a siren but I thought I was dreaming. Then ds came to wake me up. By the time I got up, woke up all the other kids and got to the mamad, it was definitely after the window of time allotted. Everyone was half asleep so someone turned on the light by mistake, forgetting that it was YT. That actually was a bracha because otherwise it would have been pitch black.

Then Ds got dressed and went to yeshiva for davening. (Dh was already in shul.) I figured that it was probably a mistake or just 1 siren and decided to get everyone ready early and make it to shul earlier than planned. So I gave the kids breakfast but before they could eat it, there was another siren. Everyone ran to the mamad and I was starting to worry. Then we had about 2 hours of siren after siren. I tried to act calm for the kids. Especially 2 of the kids who get panicky by sirens.

I brought breakfast for the kids into the mamad. I realized that there was no way to get anyone dressed normally. So I dashed upstairs to get the little ones' clothing and dressed them in the mamad. The older kids each took turns getting dressed in the bathroom closest to the mamad. The were nervous to get undressed because how could they run to the mamad undressed? So I coached them how to get dressed so that they can run out within a few seconds and still not be exposed.

One ds had a stomach ache and was too nervous to use the bathroom, in case there was another siren. I told him that it was ok and I would give him new underwear and pants if necessary. Most kids did have to run out of the bathroom half dressed and half in pjs due to the constant sirens. Finally it was my turn to get dressed and despite trying my best, I too had to run to the mamad in middle.

I couldn't imagine skipping shul. But it is a long walk (15 minutes) and I was concerned about the rockets. One dd really did not want to go to shul but I couldn't leave her home alone. So finally there was a 20 minute lull and I decided that we would walk to shul. We walked the long way since there are no buildings in the huge park and I couldn't risk that route. The entire walk I was scanning the area and picking the nearest building to run to in case of a siren. We did have a siren and had to run into a building. I noticed that the sky looked....angry. It was covered in streaks from rockets and kipat hhabarzel. There were so many streaks, it looked like someone scribbled all over the sky.

We made it to shul and despite arriving at a decent time, they were up to mussaf. The hakafot were done ultra fast. There were sirens during the tefila. We walked home and I was relieved that we made it home. After havdala I couldn't believe that I took the kids to shul. But I didn't know any details when I left to shul.

amother

Ultramarine

Wed, Jul 24 2024, 5:16 am

I was in bed, just deciding whether to go to shul for shacharit or later on, when the first siren went. I sat up, thinking, 'That's צבע אדום. It can't be צבע אדום. It is. No it can't be. Maybe it's a mistake?' And then the second one went off, and I couldnt maintain my denial of reality any longer. So I thought, if there was a chance of another one, I should probably get dressed. Once I was dressed, I thought that I may as well go to shul. I live five minutes from the shul, and my brain was plotting the available shelters along the way.

I got to shul safely, but a few minutes later, there was another siren. They were in the middle of the Amidah, and a few women went out into the stairwell to continue davening there, but most just rooted into the floor. You could see everyone looking towards the window, as we heard the boom, everyone nodded, and returned their attention to davening.

We always have very short hakafas in the morning, then start again after mincha, so hakafas were basically as normal, and the leining was normal, of course. There were hardly any children in shul, so kol ha'naarim was very minimal. The Rav announced that if circumstances permitted, there would be another kol ha'naarim at mincha.

Before putting the Sifrei Torah away, we said extra Tehillim.

I daven in Bnei Torah, in Har Nof, where the pigua happened almost ten years ago, so the shul is on the security radar. Just before we finished musaf, two shabaknikim came in to speak to the Rav. We stopped davening and waited. They left, and he passed on their message, but no one in the ezrat nashim could hear properly. We finished the davening, with a few more Tehillim, and then went outside to ask the men what he said. It was a very limited message, with no reports of hostages. More instructions about what to do, and the information that there had been a serious infiltration in the South, and we were prepared for violence in the North as well. As I went home from shul, there were two military helicopters riding across the sky.

The rest of the day was quiet, but tense, with no more sirens. I heard how one of my friends had gathered up all the children in her building and organised mock hakafot in the miklat with toy Sefer Torahs and singing and dancing and Tehillim.

Motzei Shabbos I heard from a friend who has children in Beitar. She had phoned at once to see how they were. They have a Druze guard there, and he was talking about over one hundred people killed - it couldn't be. More than one hundred? It must be that he had got mixed up, and w e had had to kill that many Arabs.

Then after havdallah we switched on the radio, and gradually the full, horrifying picture developed. One hundred had been a gross understatement. We put the Sukkah away listening to the news, with blank minds and numb hearts, trying to understand what had happened. Hakafot shniyot were cancelled. The only focus was, what can we do? What does the army need?

The next day I woke up, and had a struggle to switch on the news, to reveal the fresh horrors that had developed overnight. Over the next days, the true picture finally emerged. We were in mourning, and at war for our survival.

someone ↓

Wed, Jul 24 2024, 6:58 am

I live in a yishuv in Binyamin. We davened in the early minyan, and when we on the last hakafah a guy dressed in uniform walked into the shul (at first people thought it was another one of the soldiers stationed here and tried to drag him into dance), banged on the bimah and said there was a war. It felt like some kind of Yom Kippur war flashback. We looked out of the window and we could see tons and tons and tons of iron dome interceptions or whatever they're called. He said there was shooting from Gaza and something about terrorists in Sderot, but we didn't know the scale of it. A lot of us have kids who were in yeshiva for chag, or had gone with their yeshivot to different places, and that was our main worry. All the guys on the community emergency response team went home and came back with helmets and vests and guns (they knew what was going on and knew that we were on high alert for an infiltration here). We finished davening fast and went up to the main shul, where they had rushed through hakafot. We got there at the end of the seventh hakafah and the rav stood in front of the aron kodesh and said tehillim and אחינו כל בית ישראל. At that point there were some people who knew what was happening to some extent (mainly the people in security roles or their families). We started to see guys getting into their cars in uniform and driving out of the yishuv. In the middle of kriat hatorah they got a message from our regional council security division that everyone had to go home and stay inside, and turn on their phones. That's how we spent the rest of chag, inside, saying tehillim, watching iron dome interceptions through the window of the sukkah. And listening to recorded messages on the phone updating that there was a war and we were on high alert and had to stay inside. We still had no idea about the enormity of it. My son had davened in the main minyan and he said something about a 100 people killed in the south, and I thought it was just kids and crazy rumours. During seuda shlishit I was counting down the minutes until shabbat went out and I could check the news. I wanted to know and didn't want to know at the same time. The minute shabbat ended my husband and sons went to daven maariv (in our lounge, because we couldn't leave the house) and I checked my phone and found out that it was much much worse that I could ever have imagined. Even just writing this I'm crying. It's been nine months and I still can't believe it really happened.

amother

Iris ↓

Wed, Jul 24 2024, 9:12 am

amother OP wrote:

I figured it's the appropriate day for such a sad subject. Sad

Like today, the walls were breached that day!

I live in the US and didn't hear a boo on yom tov. I only found out shortly after. I was in my bedroom and my heart started beating so wildly in my chest. It was probably the most horrific tragedy I heard in my lifetime.

ETA I hope I can open a thread very soon with the title "Where were you when you found out Moshiach is here?"

Well, I mean, we woke up to sirens and then ran to the bomb shelter multiple times, both from the house and from shul. It was every siren we do something else - after the first siren we got one of our kids dressed and I think DH got dressed, after the second we got the baby changed and dressed, after the third I finally managed to get myself dressed and the other kids got themselves dressed. After the fourth we managed to take some cake and cookies down to the miklat. Etc. Then we went to shul and kept running back and forth to the miklat.

So we knew something was up. I heard paramedics standing outside shul very antsy and unable to really daven with the minyan, listening to their radios and talking between themselves. I figured bad terror attack but one corrected me and said it was much much worse and unlike previous rounds when it was mostly PIJ trying to instigate this time it was actually Hamas. But I didn't know the full extent until just after Simchat Torah ended, in large part because I knew I didn't want to know and because I knew I would know after havdala anyways.

I don't really feel like I've processed that morning. It's just been one long war since then. The whole first month or so I was shaking and not sleeping well.

ETA: Actually I didn't "wake up" to the siren. I woke up and went to the bathroom and while I was on the toilet (sorry TMI) the siren went off and I called to DH "AZAKA, get [toddler] and wake [oldest], I'll be off in a second" and he didn't hear (didn't register, he was half-asleep and sure he was imagining it). So I got off in a rush and went to slap his leg and yell "AZAKA if you want to get the kids down we need to do it or else let's just stay here" and THEN he suddenly opened his eyes and sat up really fast and said "what the he**" and I went back to wash my hands and wash negel vasser (yes I know, waste of seconds but I judged we had enough and we did) and then we acted according to our plan and I grabbed the baby and went to yank the girls up and he grabbed the toddler and went to wake the oldest and we all shlepped down to the miklat. Actually I don't think DH washed negel vasser before we went down that time, I think he washed when we came up, but maybe I'm misremembering.

(We have a buddy system, every couple years it changes but there is a buddy system. My buddy is always the smallest, DH's is always the one who is bigger but still needs to be carried if we want to make it down in 90 seconds flat. Then we pair 2 of the kids who will go well together. Right now the oldest has no partner but also doesn't need one.)

amother

↑ Iris

Wed, Jul 24 2024, 9:22 am

someone wrote:

You were here during the Yom Kippur War?

I wasn't but I did think of it when I found out what happened.

And no I haven't digested it even nine months later. It was much much worse than anyone could have imagined.