This year, Remembrance Day for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism will be different from those we experienced in the past. As I do every year, I will place the IDF wreath at the Hadera military cemetery at an official ceremony just after the siren, and I'll visit the grave of my good friend, Yaron. This time, the cemetery will be empty. I'll be there as the IDF's representative during this year's special version of events. At the grave, I won't be meeting the friends who for 30 years have visited it with his family. This time, it will be sadder.
This loneliness and emptiness might help us better understand grief. The Hebrew word for our dead, halal, illustrates the void, the sudden and permanent lack to which grief sentences us. Until now, Memorial Day was a day to gather, a day of memories, a day for comrades in arms who for a brief moment at the gravesite revert back to the roles they had on that same cursed day of loss.
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The bereaved family doesn't need Memorial Day. They are sentenced to a perpetual day of mourning. We need it. We need this proximity, and our values and directives obligate us to observe it. We are obligated to remember, and to learn. We want to declare and demonstrate that we have not forgotten, and that we have learned. We have not forgotten the feelings, the brotherhood, the youthful high spirits, how we confronted tough challenges together. And we learned! To tell you the truth, we learned a lot. I, for example, learned from Benaya Rhein the meaning of professional and strict, but loving and sensitive, command. From Yaron Pik I learned the value of friendship in creating security and faith within the team. From Shlomi Cohen I learned what it means to stick to the mission, to confront the enemy, and the meaning of personal sacrifice.
On this very different Memorial Day, we will be with you, the bereaved families, in spirit, in our shared memory, and also on the phone. We will continue to see every day of military service as a day of keeping our promise to the fallen to do our utmost to ensure the safety of the state of Israel and its citizens, to look for ways of saving lives. We will do that by maintaining superiority of intelligence, which ensures deterrence, and intelligence in defending our borders, as well as retaining the offensive initiative.
This year, we will also do that by helping battle coronavirus. Our enemies should know that our strength stems from our special sensitivity to human lives. We aren't afraid -- the opposite. This comradeship is what motivates our determination, and what ignites the enthusiasm to work for the future security of Israel. This comradeship and mutual responsibility are pushing people to stretch their abilities and talents to battle the virus that has plagued us.
May the memory of the fallen be a blessing.
