It starts with feelings of dark curiosity. The search for facts in the fog of barbaric butchery taking place at Home thousands of miles from home.

The feeling of disgust, horror and fury as Twitter spews revelations of atrocities. These feelings are OK.

The utter inability to focus at the office. The constant insatiable desire for news. The feeling of emptiness; the desire to do nothing but watch, scroll and mourn. Feeling the triviality of life’s problems—after all, rockets and armed paragliders are not heading our way. These feelings are OK.

The feeling of guilt. The desire to help. The chaos of the donation frenzy. The feeling of guilt for feeling these feelings thousands of miles from Be’eri and Re’im. These feelings are OK.

Feelings of surprise and some hope as support comes from most corners. Those feelings of hope always tempered with wariness over the tides of anti-Jewish undercurrents rapidly enveloping the pro-Israel press releases.

The feelings of frustration and anger as the fears of anti-Jewish uprising are realized. The most hideous crumbs of society rapidly organize and begin the Jew-hating chants on the 7th, but the crowds grow as the week turns, and those chants beget violence. The feeling that some of those we allied with are not our allies, but leading those evil chants. These feelings are OK.

The feeling of prolonged hate. The fear of the slippery slide of the 1930s returning. The feeling that any response will exacerbate the hate while wholeheartedly knowing that a response is existential. These feelings are OK.

These feelings are dark. These feelings are acceptably alarmist. These feelings are not going away. These feelings are OK!

Shlomo Yaros passionately feels that all humans with feelings can benefit from talk therapy. Feedback is welcome at [email protected]