Many Yerushalayim shuls will have a radio tuned to the “quiet station” which activates in the event of a rocket attack chas v’sholom. While on the streets of the holy city it is business as usual, one cannot help but feel the palpable concerns and anxieties of residents, many opting to have the quiet station operating at home as well. There are tefilos and Tehillim, and increased limudim, all accompanied by a keen constant awareness that the erev Shabbos tranquility can vanish in a flash with the wail of a siren.

For many, their loved ones or someone they know, a neighbor’s son or husband perhaps are among the 15,000 soldiers and officers at the border awaiting the order to enter into Gaza. In Gaza border communities as well as cities including Ashdod and Ashkelon, sirens have been sounding during the afternoon hours so their erev Shabbos preparations are increasingly tense.

Candle lighting in Yerushalayim is about an hour away, and unlike on any regular Shabbos, parents are keeping their little ones close to home and radios are now listening to Kol Chai and Kol Berama, which will become silent emergency stations shortly before candle lighting.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)