The Times of Israel
Michael Dickson
November 2, 2023
Photo via: StandWithUs/Shutterstock
Experiencing violent trauma would have been enough.
Now imagine experiencing violent trauma, the rape of your loved ones, their murder in ways so brutal as to be almost unimaginable, and then their dismemberment and the defilement of their bodies. Add to this unfathomable loss, the constant fear of attack as you attempt to grieve, the inability to give your surviving family a sense of security and the consistent dripfeed of new, gruesome testimony – and indeed video as the perpetrators filmed it all – on a daily basis. And as each shiva in each mourning-house takes place, the shadow of anxiety about the wellbeing of the mass-kidnappees is ever-present.
I studied the psychology of resilience in the face of terrible ordeals and wrote a book about it, but there is no psychologist on this earth that is fully equipped to counsel the victims of the Hamas massacre of October 7th. Help is certainly at hand – but there will never be a coming to terms with what happened that grisly Sabbath morning in southern Israel.
Your Jewish friends are suffering. Days, weeks have passed since the news started to seep out and the revelations began to be heard, but it is as if the clocks stopped on that unbearable day and time has yet to move on.
Read the full article HERE.
