Yom HaZikaron
Something occurred to me today in one of those moments where you see something so clearly that is obvious. If there were no Jewish state today because it loses a war, what would happen?
Best case scenario, America absorbs the refugees. Okay, I already am American. Would that be so weird?
But now what? In synagogue, I'll turn and face Jerusalem, but that's strange....it's not even our city anymore. We would say "b'shana habaa b'yerushalayim" but rather than imagining next year in some hotel on Pesach in Jerusalem, we would know it was not really likely we'd be in Israel for any holiday in the near future. We'd continue to pray for this country that isn't even ours. We'd celebrate harvest holidays for a country that isn't ours. We'd talk about ancient places that we'd never visit. Know all these details about the geography of a land we'd sit and talk about but not go to. And we'd continue to teach our kids to read and write Hebrew, even though no one really speaks it. We'd have some dream that wasn't really reality.
And then it occurred to me. That's what Judaism looked like for 2000 years before Israel became the Jewish country again.
Thank you Israel for holding down the fort here for all of us Jews around the world to have a place to call our home. And thank you to those pioneers who took the dream and made it reality.
Best case scenario, America absorbs the refugees. Okay, I already am American. Would that be so weird?
But now what? In synagogue, I'll turn and face Jerusalem, but that's strange....it's not even our city anymore. We would say "b'shana habaa b'yerushalayim" but rather than imagining next year in some hotel on Pesach in Jerusalem, we would know it was not really likely we'd be in Israel for any holiday in the near future. We'd continue to pray for this country that isn't even ours. We'd celebrate harvest holidays for a country that isn't ours. We'd talk about ancient places that we'd never visit. Know all these details about the geography of a land we'd sit and talk about but not go to. And we'd continue to teach our kids to read and write Hebrew, even though no one really speaks it. We'd have some dream that wasn't really reality.
And then it occurred to me. That's what Judaism looked like for 2000 years before Israel became the Jewish country again.
Thank you Israel for holding down the fort here for all of us Jews around the world to have a place to call our home. And thank you to those pioneers who took the dream and made it reality.
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