‘My name is Rachel Goldberg, mother of Hersh…’

This was one of the most widely applauded speeches at last week’s support-Israel rally on the National Mall in Washington.

My name is Rachel and I am the mother of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a wounded civilian American-Iraeli kidnapped from the music festival on Oct. 7.

Right now, how we are living is hard to describe to you. We, hostage families, have lived the last 39 days in slow-motion tormet. For 38 nights, none of us have slept the real sleep of the before. We all havbe third-degree burns on our souls. Our hearts are bruised and seeping with misery. But the real souls suffering are those of the hostages and they want to ask everyone in the world —  all the screamers, the indifferent, the experts, the academics, the knowledgeable, the passives, the perfectly outraged, the righteous, the indignant, the haters, the leaders, the lovers, the every single one of us: Why?

Why is the world accepting that 240 human beings, from almost 30 countries, have been stolen and buried alive? These children of G-d range in age from 9 months to 87 years. They are Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists and Hindu. Why are they being left underground, in the dirt?

Abigail Moore Idan is 3 years old. She watched her parents get murdered in front of her and was then kidnapped, and she would like me to ask the world, why are you letting her stay in the dark, in her trauma, buried in the Earth’s crust?

And Joshua Mollel, who is a Tanzanian African graduate student studying agro-business would like for me to ask you, why, somehow, his life actually doesn’t matter?

The world must prepare what we will say to them.

There was a Christian-German who hid Jews during the Holocaust asd he was asked why he did such a heroic and dangerous act. His answer was simple. At least I will know when I die, and stand before G-d, he will not ask me what he asked Cain in the Bible: Where were you when you brother’s blood cried out from the ground?

What the world needs to start thinking about today is, what will your excuse be?