Erev Yom Hazikaron, the Midreshet students gathered together with hundreds of other students, religious and not, studying this year in Israel to commemorate Yom HaZikaron, the Memorial Day for Israel's fallen soldiers. There was a tremendous sense of achdut amongst the participants of the program, as everyone knew that the fact that they can spend their year feeling comfortable here in Israel was a result of the sacrifices of men and women in the IDF.

After the commemorative siren, the father of fallen soldier Yaron Chen said Kaddish. Afterwards Natan Sharansky spoke about how during his years as a Prisoner of Zion in Russia he would think about the mesirut nefesh that young soldiers have in Israel to fight for the Jewish homeland and that gave him the strength for his own struggle to be able to live in the Jewish Homeland. Then there were 7 presentations about 7 soldiers who were killed fighting for the State. The emphasis of these stories was to show how their families dealt with the tragedy and what they have done to commemorate the memory of their loved ones. The evening ended with a heartfelt Hatikva sung together in unison that was truly inspirational.

The next day on Yom Hazikaron we started off the day hearing from Asael Lubotsky, a young soldier who was injured in his tank during the second Lebanon war. He told of his Emunah throughout his ordeal and how although he will never be the same again he is so proud to have fought for his country and his people. We then headed up to Har Herzl to hear the siren and partake in the Tekes. It was truly moving to see families  surrounding the graves of their loved ones and we each took the time to say some Tehilim at a kever. Later in the afternoon we had a learning session led by Rav Eitan on Mesirat Nefesh and then watched a movie about the life of Roi Klien, a soldier who was killed in the second Lebanon war when he threw himself on top of a grenade to save his fellow soldiers.