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During Chanukah, a special and particularly moving thanksgiving party was held by the Lerner family. Not just another regular family event, but a profound moment of pause, breath, and gratitude - exactly one year after Chagai Lerner, the family's son, was seriously injured in the war. Anyone who was there felt it immediately: this is not just a story about an injury, it is a story about faith, about Divine providence, and about the ability to see within the pain the hand of the One who runs the world.
The story of the Lerner family is a story of people who choose every day anew to say: there is a Leader of the world. Even when they don't understand. Even when it's hard. Even when they don't see the full picture. The belief that accompanies them is that everything - even this - is for the best. They don't always know how to explain why, they don't always manage to understand the moves, but they choose to believe. Some of the answers may still come, and some will remain a secret forever. And within that year they experienced a series of stories, almost inconceivable, of small and large miracles.
It all started with Chagai. After his regular service, he went on his first reserve duty. Not a long recruitment, not a planned operation - just to replace someone for three days. Three and a half days in a tank, with a team he had not known before. He reassured his mother and told her that there was nothing to worry about, that it was a quiet area, the Netzarim axis. For him, it was also a very charged and meaningful place: when he was a baby, his grandfather was murdered in the settlement of Netzarim. And now, as if a circle was closed, he is there as a fighter. On the shells he fired, he wrote that they were for the elevation of the soul of his grandfather, may his blood be avenged. He felt that he was fighting, that he was doing his part, that he was avenging his grandfather's murder a little.
At first, everything really seemed calm, almost pastoral. Training, guarding, security operations. But then, an RPG hit him directly in the face. On the spot he realized that he could not see. Severe head injury, many shrapnel, injury to the arm and neck, complex surgeries. It could have ended completely differently. And it is clear to the family: the Holy One, blessed be He, left him here because he still has a role in the world.
When you meet Chagai today, you can't help but be impressed. "I have no eyes," he says simply, "but a head - thank God I have, and I am at full strength." Sharp, connected, alive. Doing everything possible.
And on that same day, the family drama did not end. His brother Malachi, who was also in reserve duty, received the news of his brother's injury and immediately left his home in Givat Uri near the settlement of Telem, on his way to Soroka. On the way, a vehicle traveling towards him went out for a dangerous overtaking. He had no way to escape. He went off the road, tried to return, and his vehicle flipped three times in the air and landed in the field opposite. He got out of the wrecked vehicle, ordered himself an ambulance, and was evacuated to the hospital - the same hospital where his parents were waiting for news about Chagai.
The parents did not know his condition. The mother, Ronit, says that she was only told that there was an accident and that everything was fine. "This too is for the best," she said to herself. When they met Malachi, he smiled at them, his neck was fixed, he looked full of adrenaline - and stable. Only months later did the depth of the miracle become clear: following the accident, he had a CT scan, and the scan revealed a malignant tumor. A small tumor, three millimeters, which the accident exposed in time. Without the accident - there is no chance that he would have been examined. The tumor was removed in surgery, without chemotherapy and without radiation. Malachi returned to a full life, to work, and is now back in reserve duty.
And as if that were not enough, also with Chagai, in the tests that were done following the injury, another tumor was discovered - in the intestine. With him it took time, only after the end of the rehabilitation was he operated on. Here too - thank God - the tumor was successfully removed. Two life savings in one year.
And alongside all this, another miracle story: Last Sukkos, one of the brothers was bitten by a venomous snake in the Sukkah. The doctors said that he was saved thanks to the hood he was wearing and thanks to his relatively large body structure. A small child, they said, would not have survived. Three brothers, three injuries - and each one at a time of mitzvah: a war of mitzvah, visiting the sick, and sitting in the Sukkah. And the family feels throughout this year the close accompaniment of the Creator of the world, the providence, the hand that directs.
And they also thank for Chagai's relationship. A week before he was supposed to propose - he was injured. His partner is by his side all the way, with strength, with devotion. Now they are waiting for the day when he can propose, and build a home. A great victory - for him and for the whole family.
And the circles are also closing in another place: the family's niece was saved from an attack only two weeks before Chagai's injury. After a thanksgiving meal she held, a group was opened to say perek Tehillim "מזמור לתודה" - as a zchus that she should get married. Ronit, Chagai's mother, joined the group, and within a few days an idea came to her mind: Chagai's friend from the tank, the one who comes to visit him week after week with great devotion, is suitable for the niece. The connection was simple, natural. This week they got married. Closing a circle. A last girl in the family, who grew up an orphan from the age of six - found a home.
This is what a family looks like that chooses to see good. Not to deny pain, but to give thanks. Not to run away from the questions, but to believe. A family that says thank you - and sees how life continues to happen out of gratitude. ■
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