My name is Yossi Chazan. I am a Barkai rabbi and I am the rabbi in Beit Yatir which is in the southern mountains of Hevron. I served in the IDF as a soldier in the Paratroopers and afterwards as an officer. In the reserves as well I served as an officer in the 59th Unit of the Paratroopers. My regular service lasted around 4 years. At its end I served as a commander in the Officers school.
During my regular service, the IDF was still in Lebanon. We waited in underground positions and from them we left for dangerous patrols and ambushes. During this period Hizbollah terrorists would put explosive devices where we would walk and every move of ours was dangerous.
I remember going on a long ambush that lasted 36 hours. I was the commander of the ambush. When it got dark, we went deep into Lebanon and after walking for several hours we came to the ambush point. Towards morning we went up a mountainside and hid in bushes until the evening. I remember that during the day I went around from solider to soldier in order to strengthen them. I admired them and suddenly felt a special pride and love for our people who have such sons, who instead of resting and working for themselves, go out on such grueling operations with little food and much danger and no one leaves or complains. As if it were obvious that a twenty-year-old boy would hang out in such a place and under such conditions.
I remember when I put on tefillin there in the bushes it was not strange to anyone. Not for the secular either. It is as if they connected to the mitzvah we do in the defense of our dear country. What is special is that I felt it had nothing to do with logic and knowledge, but with a healthy Jewish instinct that recognized the value of its great people instinctively.
At night we went down again to the ambush point and lay there all night struggling against cold and fatigue. In the morning we returned happy, proud and with a special sense of belonging to our people and our country.
During the Second Lebanon War I was already in the reserves and the fighters already had families. Yet again we saw the Jewish instinct awaken and naturally and simply, the reservist leaves the family and the comfortable chair at work, takes a rifle and grenades, loads a heavy bag full of equipment on his back and marches back into Lebanon to defend the north from Hezbollah terrorists and stays there for weeks.
All this devotion stems from the inner recognition of the special value of our people, out of an awareness of its historical role for all of humanity and the importance of the existence of the State of Israel first and foremost the flowering of our redemption.
Even today in citizenship we strive with all our might to strengthen our country in the material and especially in the spirit that is the source of our true resilience.
I feel that my role as a community rabbi is extremely important to our inner strength.
At Barkai, I receive guidance on how to carry out my duties in a more professional manner, build community resilience and bring a great blessing to my dear community and to the entire people of Israel.