For days, the headlines screamed about the unprecedented attack. Terror, unfortunately, had become all too common, but to invade a peaceful synagogue, to brutally use guns to shoot men clad in tallis and tefilin, to use a meat cleaver against men quietly pouring their hearts out to their Creator – what became known as the Har Nof Massacre was a new level of violence that shocked the world.

And then, as always, new headlines replaced the old. The world moved on, and the widows and orphans, the bereaved parents, the families and neighbors and friends, were left to remember and to mourn.

For Risa Rotman and her family, the grieving took a very different form. Her husband, Chaim, who’d been left with serious brain injuries, was in a deep coma. Not dead, but somewhere far, far away.

Terror and Emunah in Har Nof is Risa’s story, told in her own words, with honesty, insight, and yes, even humor. In hospitals, rehab facilities, ambulances and her own home, we’re with her as she draws upon deep wellsprings of emunah (and chocolate ice cream!) to grapple with her unimaginable challenges.

Though it begins with terror and ends with sorrow, Terror and Emunah in Har Nof is not a sad book. It’s a book that shows us the strength of our people’s compassion, and how, as Risa tells us, “ “A Jew is never in limbo… they are exactly in the place they are meant to be.”