This summer Hezbollah launched a vicious war by kidnapping two Israeli soldiers, killing and wounding hundreds, and firing thousands of rockets on Israeli towns and cities. Israel responded, a ceasefire was declared after a month, but the unknown still lies ahead with Syria and Iran.

Israeli parents send their children to serve in the IDF knowing they may never return. For them, IDF is not a courageous acronym, a military might; the IDF consists of their precious and irreplaceable children.

“Shall your brothers go out to battle while you settle here?!” (Numbers 32:6) Moses asked the tribes who wished to settle on the Eastern side of the Jordan and not enter the West Bank with the rest of Israel. While your brothers are at war, how can you justify relaxing in your vineyard munching grapes?

Moses’ question still resonates 3,300 years later. “Shall your brothers go to battle while you settle here?!” Are we not one family? Are we not one people? Jewish youth elsewhere go about their business, while others – no less virtuous – end up in Gaza and Lebanon?

Fate places people in different circumstances, and it does not always seem fair. In 1938, at age five, my father watched Soviet police take his father away as he recited the Kiddush Friday night. The communists sentenced my grandfather, Simon Yakobashvili (Jacobson in Georgian) to 25 years in Krasnoyarsk, for the “crime” of keeping Judaism alive in the “communist paradise.” That moment defined my father’s life in ways more than one.

Why did my father go through what I never had to? Again, I don’t know. But I know that we each have our own challenges, within our own timeline in history and circumstances, and are charged to make a difference in our corner of the planet. Nothing can compare to the commitment and sacrifice of Israel’s soldiers, who literally give their lives against an enemy bent on annihilating them. Their example challenges us to ask ourselves: Are we fulfilling our mission with the diligence, zest and sacrifice of our brothers on duty in tanks and trenches?

“Shall your brothers go out to battle while you settle here?” we ask ourselves at such times. Am I absolved just because I live in the US? There is an intimate bond and connection between every Jew and Israel, as we are each connected to Israel with a million knots.

At such times, we must all mobilize, not only to give money; but to direct our essence, our prayers and Mitzvos to achieve victory over a ruthless enemy trying to obliterate us. Just as our soldiers battle with heart and soul, so must we express solidarity and increase our spiritual efforts through Torah and observance of mitzvos; through prayer and charity. With G-d’s help, we will triumph.