Shalom all,
Today I recieved a very, very special gift for the new year. A gift from the
past with signs for the future. I must explain.
In September 1940, Italian aircrafts bombed Tel-Aviv. It was one of
Musollini's contributions to Hitler when Italy joined World War II, and it
left horror, distruction and more than 100 people dead within a few minutes.
One of them was my grandfather. A direct hit, my grandparent's house was
completely destroyed, leaving only my mother - then 6 years old - and my
grandmother alive; badly injured, but alive. Throughout my entire life,
these two incredible women embedded the stories of our family into my soul:
coming to Israel in 1882, establishing Zichron Yaacov, moving to
Neve-Shalom, Tel-aviv, joining the Haggana, the bombing - and life after
that day.
One of the stories my grandmother used to tell me was about a shooting
arcade that my grandfather owned on the beach of Tel-Aviv after the British
Mandate was established, at the end of World War I. It was called "TIR", a
popular - and more important, legal - place to drink and shoot. In reality,
it was a perfect secret practice place for Haggana members. He also had a
"slick" there - a hidaway filled with weapons for the Haggana.
Wherever I searched, whomever I asked - no one remembered neither the
bombing nor the story of the arcade. It was as though they had vanished.
Compared to the enormity of the events that were happening around the world
during the darkest days of human history, they simply weren't important. but
for us, they were living and breathing and had changed the course of our
lives forever.
That's why this morning, when I met one of Israel's giants - Liova Eliav - I
was at tears when he told me he was a living part of the story of my family.
Not only because he had experienced the same events, but because he actually
knew them, had practiced at the arcade, remembered my grandfather - and was
one of the young Jews of Palestine that tried, desperately, to shoot down
the attacking planes that made my mother an orphan at 6. It was the first
time in my entire life that someone other than my family attested to what I
had grown up with, and I could literaly taste it.
More than anything, I felt it was an incredible sign. Finding the roses of
memory on the eve of Yom Kippur, roses with the fragrance of challange,
struggle, hardship - hand in hand with triumphs, happiness and vision,
reminded me that the true roses of our lives are people and the way they
touch us. On Yom Kippur, the first thing is to remember again that it's all
about people - and the way we touch them.
It is going to be a difficult year. A year filled with hardships, struggles,
challanges - and if we put our energy to face it supporting each other, than
it will also bring triumphs, happiness and the fullfillment of visions.
The Hebrew proverb says "Kol Yisrael Arevim ze ba'ze" - all of Israel are responsible in each other. "Ba'zeh" - IN each other, and not "La'zeh" - for each other - as we many times say incorrectly. The difference is important: when you are responsible FOR someone or something, it is a two-way street, give and take, from one to the next.
But when it is IN each other, there is an intertwining, an inseperable mesh of parts that create a whole. One is contained within the other, so much so that the bond becomes a fusion.
We sometimes question the meaning of the proverb. We ask ourselves, are we really intertwined? Are we indeed "One big global family"?
I got an answer today, during one of the most difficult days we had in a long time. As we were grieving, learning the names, the people, the families, the tragic stories of our victims; As we were gathering in Be'er Sheba, overwhelmed, trying to bring support where support is so necessary; As we were, once again, reflecting on the situation, its causes, gathering our thoughts and reactions; As we were immersed in ourselves, a phone call came. "We are boarding the next plane".
That was all. Nothing more needed to be said. We knew that a part of the whole had just responded to the pain of another part: our family from Montreal, Be'er Sheba's partnership 2000 region, were on their way. They had heard the news and their first reaction was simple, true and pure: they were on their way to be with us physically at the greatest time of need.
No thanks were needed. No explanations or discussions. It was as natural as coming home.
I believe that, at the end of the day, this is what the fabric of the Jewish people is made of - and it is why, despite the pain, despite the conflicts and hardships, it is the fabric of a global people who will prevail.
Gmar Hatima Tova,
Liat