Presence

For those of you who remember my post about the Orthodox Jewish Baltimorean U.S. solider wounded in Iraq (Joe Kashnow), check out this cover story from last week's Baltimore Jewish Times.

Joe is still recuperating, but, as the article details, he has started the Jewish Soldier Foundation, whose mission is to help Jews enlisted in the U.S. armed forces. The article recounts some of the situations Joe faced as an Orthodox Jew in the U.S. Armed Forces, including a lack of kosher food and scorn from fellow soldiers. The foundation's goal is to make sure these things don't happen again.

What Joe is doing is a tremendous thing. Every day, people suffer, some more than others. And every day, people wonder why it is they who are suffering, and not others. Some take their suffereing and grow from it, by giving it meaning. We may never be able to understand the reason for our suffering, but we can give it meaning and help others, to alleviate their suffering.

Lastly, I have to quote one part of the article that made me chuckle:

When he first reached his wife by phone at their home in Colorado Springs, near his home base at Fort Carson, shortly after the attack, Mr. Kashnow launched into detail about the explosion. He told her only that a nameless member of his company had been hurt, describing the soldier's wounds — open fractures of his left tibia and fibula, shrapnel wounds in both legs and one arm — and making it clear the injured man would be fine — never letting on the soldier was himself.

"'So, how are you,'" she remembers asking, once he had finished his tale. "Then he said, 'Yeah, it was me.'

Pure, 100% Kashnow.

Please continue to daven, learn, and say tehillim for YOSEF ELIYAHU BEN MALKA ITA.
May he, and all of the sick in Klal Yisroel have a SPEEDY AND COMPLETE RECOVERY.