Past and Future
I haven't updated in a long time and the past few weeks, mostly the past week, has been filled with a lot of things. I want to honour the day and talk about Yom Hazikaron but I also have a lot of other things I want to talk about. It seems to all be connected somehow anyway.
The tekes today at school left me with feelings of pain, hope, gratitude and pride. They decided to focus on one soldier, who was killed in the summer, rather than on the abstract numbers, and showed pictures of him, played a song he wrote and sang and read things he and those who knew him wrote. I felt this was a much better idea than the usual mixture of songs and words that doesn't really connect you to anyone. Its painful to realize that there is another war to add to the list. Although the feelings I recall from the summer, other than the pain of hearing bad news, is the togetherness and being proud of how strong we can be.
Last week, on Yom Hashoa, I realized that although a lot of the strong emotions I felt after Poland seem distant, what I am left with is a sensitivity to that pain and loss, that I feel when hearing peoples stories. We had the Tekes outside so we heard the siren really loudly and I felt like the sound was the most apropriate sound in the world, it gives this feeling of a deep cut that time doesn't heal. The girls who went to Poland this year did the tekes and they started by saying they were focusing on children in the Shoah this year and they had decided to stand to represent the children of Israel today who live on and remember those children who didn't get the chance to. They stood in a line and each said "I am *their name*", some adding "grandaughter to *grandparent's name* who survived the shoah", others adding "a Jew" or "daughter to the Jewish nation who survived the Shoah".
We have survived the Shoah and we have survived all the other wars against us and we continue to fight for our survival with faith and courage. This time on the afternoon of Yom Hazikaron, just a few hours before Yom Haatsmaut seems to me to be such an important time. Its this time of transition when we realize that there are people ready to put down their lives so that we can live in peace and safety and that we owe everything to those who died so that we could live. Its painful to see children mourning on this day but we know that that is what insures our future, because it is so important to remember that we can't take this land for granted. Life is so precious and life in this land is such a gift. Its amazing that I can look at my window and see the beautiful holy land of Israel flowering in the spring. And its amazing that I have the oppurtunity to choose to learn Torah for a year and then to spend two year of my life helping to strenthen our society as a soldier in the Israeli army.
Out of the pain comes the rebirth, the understanding that its all a miracle and that just as Hashem guided us to this day, so will He guide us on and help us to spread light and hope and love. I pray that He grants us the courage to look for the good in ourselves and in each other and to love each other so that we deserve to see the Beit Hamikdash built bimhera beyameinu.
The tekes today at school left me with feelings of pain, hope, gratitude and pride. They decided to focus on one soldier, who was killed in the summer, rather than on the abstract numbers, and showed pictures of him, played a song he wrote and sang and read things he and those who knew him wrote. I felt this was a much better idea than the usual mixture of songs and words that doesn't really connect you to anyone. Its painful to realize that there is another war to add to the list. Although the feelings I recall from the summer, other than the pain of hearing bad news, is the togetherness and being proud of how strong we can be.
Last week, on Yom Hashoa, I realized that although a lot of the strong emotions I felt after Poland seem distant, what I am left with is a sensitivity to that pain and loss, that I feel when hearing peoples stories. We had the Tekes outside so we heard the siren really loudly and I felt like the sound was the most apropriate sound in the world, it gives this feeling of a deep cut that time doesn't heal. The girls who went to Poland this year did the tekes and they started by saying they were focusing on children in the Shoah this year and they had decided to stand to represent the children of Israel today who live on and remember those children who didn't get the chance to. They stood in a line and each said "I am *their name*", some adding "grandaughter to *grandparent's name* who survived the shoah", others adding "a Jew" or "daughter to the Jewish nation who survived the Shoah".
We have survived the Shoah and we have survived all the other wars against us and we continue to fight for our survival with faith and courage. This time on the afternoon of Yom Hazikaron, just a few hours before Yom Haatsmaut seems to me to be such an important time. Its this time of transition when we realize that there are people ready to put down their lives so that we can live in peace and safety and that we owe everything to those who died so that we could live. Its painful to see children mourning on this day but we know that that is what insures our future, because it is so important to remember that we can't take this land for granted. Life is so precious and life in this land is such a gift. Its amazing that I can look at my window and see the beautiful holy land of Israel flowering in the spring. And its amazing that I have the oppurtunity to choose to learn Torah for a year and then to spend two year of my life helping to strenthen our society as a soldier in the Israeli army.
Out of the pain comes the rebirth, the understanding that its all a miracle and that just as Hashem guided us to this day, so will He guide us on and help us to spread light and hope and love. I pray that He grants us the courage to look for the good in ourselves and in each other and to love each other so that we deserve to see the Beit Hamikdash built bimhera beyameinu.