[chicago-aneinu] Reflections on a New Reality By Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb

(PLEASE LEARN AS A ZECHUS FOR EREZ YISRAEL) We are in an eis tzarah, a time of trouble and suffering and ominous events. How do we react? How do we act? I begin by reflecting on our long history as a people. We have known much suffering, and the suffering we now experience cannot be belittled. However, we have survived worse times, and one of the reasons for our survival has been our attitude of trust and hope. Hopefulness is rare nowadays, and we must do what we can to restore it. Think of the national anthem of the State of Israel, HaTikvah. The other national anthems with which I am familiar either have themes of war (“bombs bursting in air”) or of royal kings and queens and their exaggerated powers. Israel, however, has an anthem whose theme is tikvah, hope. Reb Nachman of Breslav would repeatedly shout to his followers, “Yidden, yidden, do not despair! Zeit sich nisht meyaesh! Do not fall into a state of yi’ush, of hopelessness!” So hope and faith in G-d’s mercy is one necessary response. How to cultivate an attitude of hope is a matter for each individual to discover for himself or herself. Among the sources to turn to are the words of Psalms and Prophets, especially Isaiah. I refer here not just to prayer, but to discovering and studying, and perhaps reciting and even singing, verses and passages which are uplifting and encouraging. Another response is one that has been particularly difficult for our people to achieve. I speak of achdut (unity), the recognition that we are all one people. We must profoundly transform our attitudes and achieve the genuine realization that hatred and machloket (dispute) are grievous sins, and that there is a mitzvah of ahavat Yisrael, of loving each and every Jew, and that we cannot fulfill this mitzvah (commandment) through lip service, but only by courageously changing our behavior towards all others. The only way to achieve this is by actively working together, face to face and shoulder to shoulder, with other Jews. Soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces discover this every day on the fields of battle. The pictures we have all witnessed of soldiers, with and without kippot (skullcaps), dancing in a circle together and singing songs of great faith, is but one example of this ideal. The physical acts of chesed (kindness) and awesome generosity for the victims of the Hurricane Sandy disaster, from Jew to Jew irrespective of the petty distinctions to which we have become accustomed, is the “way to go,” the road to achdut.