“A new light shall shine upon Zion” — these are the words written on the grave of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was murdered after being kidnapped from the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, 2023.

Nadav Goldstein-Almog, from Kibbutz Kfar Aza, used to say, “Hope is the last thing to die.” He was murdered together with his daughter, Yam, in their kibbutz.

Tamar Kedem-Siman Tov was a candidate for head of the Eshkol Regional Council. She was murdered together with her husband, Yonatan, and their three children, Arbel, Shahar, and Omer, in their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz.

So many others were murdered that day—civilians and members of the security forces. Among them, members of my family from Kibbutz Be’eri, and other people I knew.

A few days ago, I spoke with a non-Jewish man who lives in another country. He told me that he understood my/our shock at what happened in October 2023.

But as I listened to him, I looked at his face. There was something in the small movements of his face, in the way he held his body, that made me think that maybe he was only being polite. Maybe he was really listening but did not understand. Maybe he simply could not understand how terrible this disaster was.

I said to him, “You probably don’t understand what this is really about.”

And from there, our conversation went to places that only people with a lot of imagination could reach.

What did I understand from this conversation?

When there is not enough good explanation, when there is not enough work being done on the ground, people get their information from the media around the world, which is not sympathetic to Israel, and/or from friends who have heard one or two things, and from that, they form their understanding, often based on information that is simply wrong.

I tried to speak calmly. But anyone who knows me knows that this is not always easy for me, especially when false accusations are made against my people.

So, I decided to start from the beginning.

A little history of the Jewish people. A little history of the Arab people. How the two became connected. The results. The conclusions.

I finished.

Sweat covered my face and body.

He looked at me and said nothing.

And I simply asked him, “Do you understand this, Baruch?” (A very Israeli expression.)

A minute of silence passed.

Then he said: “Apparently, it takes a lot of love for your country, and a lot of mental and physical strength, to explain what most non-Jewish people around the world are missing.”

I laughed.

“I exercise a lot, and I have no other country.”

Oct. 7, 2023, was one of the worst disasters to ever happen to us, part of the long chain of disasters that have struck the Jewish people throughout our history.

Three years have passed, and the heart still has not healed. Even now, memories bring tears to my eyes.

In the coming days, we will mark three years since the massacre.

Usually, we say, or think, that if you have not lost someone close to you, you cannot truly understand the pain of someone who has.

There is truth in that.

But this time, something happened to an entire people.

Even those who did not personally lose someone they loved have gone through these three years with something broken inside them. Something broke inside all of us.

And now it is time to repair.

“A new light shall shine upon Zion” — the words written on Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s grave.

May that light shine upon us now and stay with us forever.

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