The Last Hostage

Along the passage of my life are pictures that I will never forget...some are personal, some are national...I won't go through them now...maybe some time, but now there is yet another.

We knew this moment would come...we didn't know who it would be. I think, though I never met him, he would have wanted it to be his.

This is Ran Gvili. He was an officer in the Israeli Police. His is the last picture that remains in the entrance and exit corridor of Ben Gurion Airport. Every passenger who arrives or leaves walks along (or is helped through) this passageway. It takes you from our world to outside and from outside back to home.

Ran protected...that was his job and that was his personality. On October 7, long before any order came to mobilize, he ran into battle.

And now he stands, the last hostage. He has, from above, seen all the others home safe. Now it is his turn to come home.

 
He will come home...Please, Hashem, bring him home. He deserves to be buried in our holy land.

We wait...for now, his picture stands guard. A reminder that we have not forgotten him, not for a single second. He will be remembered among those who ran into battle to defend his people, among those who saved lives on that horrible day, and as the last hostage to be released by the monsters. 

In a few months, I will again travel abroad for business. And when I do...I pray there will be no pictures left, that Ran will be home.