Yom Hazikaron, Israel's Memorial Day, will be observed tonight and tomorrow, April 29-30, paying tribute to those who gave their lives to build and protect the modern State of Israel. It is a day of intense mourning in Israel, but it has been less seriously observed in the United States.
I do not think I will ever forget past experiences of Yom Hazikaron in Israel. The day is not simply a memorial to Israel's fallen; it is a day in which the country celebrates the value of national service. Whether in emotional communal events, or in the pilgrimage of thousands to the cemeteries, one sees a nation celebrating the role of individuals in its founding and continued existence. Thousands of young students, considering their futures, walk amongst the graves of Har Herzl's military cemetery hearing seventy-year-old and seventy-day-old stories of the individuals buried there, and consciously setting these individuals as their role models. Family members cluster around the graves of close and distant relatives, experiencing both the continued pain of their loss and pride in their contribution to the presence and safety of their people in Eretz Yisrael.
On one occasion, I observed one impressive family gathered in one of the older sections, around the grave of Esther Cailingold. Esther was an Orthodox Jewish young woman who was deeply affected by her work with teenage Holocaust survivors in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War and was moved to become a member of the Jewish community in pre-state Palestine. She travelled there in November 1946 at the age of twenty-one to assume a position as a teacher and eventually joined the Haganah. She was wounded and died in the siege of Jerusalem in May 1948. Those visiting her grave were the descendants of her siblings, still holding her memory as a beacon for their values and direction. Esther's letters from that period in Israel are published in a moving book, "An Unlikely Heroine," with her final letter – written six days before her passing – made famous by her brother-in-law Yehuda Avner, who cites it in "The Prime Ministers":
May 23, 1948
Dear Mummy, Daddy and everybody,
If you do get this at all, it will be, I suppose, typical of all my hurried, messy letters. I am writing it to beg of you that whatever may have happened to me, you will make the effort to take it in the spirit that I want to and to understand that for myself I have no regrets. We have had a bitter fight, I have tasted of Gehenem (Hell) – but it has been worthwhile because I am convinced that the end will see a Jewish State and the realization of all our longings….
I hope that you will enjoy from Mimi and Asher the satisfaction that you missed in me – let it be without regrets, and then I too shall be happy. I am thinking of you all, every single one of you in the family, and am full of pleasure at the thought that you will one day, very soon I hope, come and enjoy the fruits of that for which we are fighting.
Much, much love, be happy and remember me only in happiness,
Shalom and Lehitraot,
Your loving Esther
At this particularly difficult time, it is exceptionally important that we elevate the awareness and engagement of American Jews in commemorating this day, both as an expression of empathy with the many grieving their raw and fresh losses – mitablim imahem – and to demonstrate appreciation and respect for those who have sacrificed their lives for us, for Klal Yisrael. As noted in the Talmud (Bava Batra 10b) regarding the Harugei Lud (the heroes murdered at Lud), those who readily sacrifice everything for their people occupy an exclusive and vaunted place in the World to Come.
This is also an opportunity to highlight the powerful worldview, hashkafat hachayim, of the Religious Zionist community that has borne a disproportionate number of the losses experienced in the past year and a half. The students in that community are driven by a sense of mission to serve G-d and the Jewish people by assuming responsibility to protect and build the modern State of Israel in the way of Torah. That mindset is lacking in our American Jewish value system. We teach our children to be religious, learned, charitable, and to volunteer for good causes, but we do not move them to define themselves in terms of what they can do for their people.
Towards that end the Orthodox Union has once again partnered with Bnei David Institutions in Eli to produce a video presentation for Yom Hazikaron that shines a bright light on the Torah and emunah that drives its students – 29 of whom have given their lives since Simchat Torah 5784 – and others in the Religious Zionist community to volunteer at the front lines in securing and building Israel. Please take a few minutes to learn from this film's story of faith, courage, resilience, and sacrifice.
May we indeed be blessed soon with peace and security for Israel and the world and that those grieving be granted comfort and healing to enjoy the fruits of that for which their loved ones gave their lives.
בצפייה לישועה קרובה,
Sincerely,
Rabbi Moshe Hauer
Executive Vice President
No comments:
Post a Comment