Rabbi Josh Broide made aliyah from Boca Raton several months ago. On day two of Iran’s assault, he drove to Beit Shemesh to witness the aftermath — and found himself searching for words.

Rabbi Josh Broide had been living in Israel for several months when the sirens began.

The veteran community leader, who spent 25 years building Jewish life in Boca Raton, Florida, had made aliyah a few months earlier with his wife Simone and two of their children, an 11-year-old and a teenager about to turn 16. He had been settling into his new country when Iran launched its ballistic missile assault on Israel, turning Shabbat in his adopted homeland into something none of them had prepared for.

On day two of the attack, Broide drove to Beit Shemesh to see with his own eyes what a ballistic missile does to an apartment building. What he saw there left him struggling to describe it.

“I thought maybe there would be a hole in a building,” he said, speaking from Israel. “You know — how big is the hole? Does it go through the roof? And then you get there and you realize: there is no building. The building is gone.”

He paused before continuing. “And it’s not just that building. The surrounding buildings are all damaged. Cars blown up. You can see the roof tiles shattered even down the block.”

Broide spoke with me on Sunday afternoon, as Israel entered its second day under Iranian attack — a conflict that had already killed multiple people and sent tens of thousands of reservists back to active duty. He had just returned from the devastated Beit Shemesh neighborhood, where he briefly spoke with one survivor who........

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