Awful Bookends to This Trip - Devastating News from Israel - Aug 5, 2009

We started this trip after spending several very sad days with our friends, Barb and Chuck Morris, who had just lost their son, Mark.

I'm sitting at the airport in Helsinki waiting for the next leg of our trip home and decided to check emails.

I wish I had waited until I got home.

There was an email waiting from my cousin, Aaron, in Israel. His son, Uriel, was killed in a freak training accident in the Golan Heights. Uriel was training to be a tank commander and his tank rolled over, killing him.

Those of you who were on the Israel trip last year with Cantor Ron will remember the surprise visit that Aaron paid me at the restaurant in Jerusalem. He came with his daughter, Yoaela, and her husband, Daniel. Yoaela and Daniel just presented Aaron and his wife, Joni, with their first grandchild.

Uriel was Aaron and Joni's only son.

Sometimes life absolutely stinks in a huge way.

I don't get it.