Page 19 - HaMizrachi Sukkot 5783 USA

I Will Not be Afraid,

for G-d is with Me!

“W hoa, whoa, A raindrop fell on my father’s head. He ה ָמ ָח ְל ִמ י ַל ָע םּוק ָּ ת ם ִא, “If war comes upon Tzviya Porat
Mandel

me…” he sprang to his feet.
raised his face skyward and smiled.
what’s this?”
My father was
ֹ
standing over “Shall we go inside now?” I also jumped up. ַח ֵטֹוב יִנ ֲא תאז ְּ ב, “In this
“Wait,” I said, looking at him in doubt,
do I trust!”
me, a bursting knapsack slung over “you really aren’t afraid of anyone?”
his left shoulder. “Exactly,” my father laughed. “When
“Of people?!” he said with horror. “Not we have faith in G-d, we have faith
“Nothing,” I said. in the least!” in ourselves too, and we don’t pay
He looked at the salty streaks my I wasn’t convinced. “I don’t believe attention to people who laugh at us.”
tears had made upon on my face and you,” I said. “Also,” he added after a moment’s
stooped toward me. “What happened?”
“I mean,” he explained, “I do get scared. thought, “we do fewer things we’re
I began crying again. Between ragged Everyone gets scared. But I overcome embarrassed of later on.”
breaths, I told him the whole story: it right away. Like a lion!” My father Tziviya Porat Mandel is Rav Chanan Porat’s
how my sister Ayelet had stood there punched the air with excitement. daughter. “That’s What My Father Said” is
and what I’d said and how we’d run her first book and tells a story of family,
away from her, and how the kids had He had a kind of gesture like that, love, growing up and longing.
imitated her and laughed at her, and so meaning “Onward!” or “Full speed
had I, because I’d been embarrassed of ahead!” or sometimes “Let’s dance!”
Ayelet and afraid they’d laugh at me. “When I start getting scared,” my
“And where is Ayelet now?” asked my father said, “I think right away about
father. what King David said. You know
it from the tefillah.”
“At home,” I said. “With Mom.”
My father, as if he were King
My father was silent. He often thought David himself, began to cry out:
before he started talking, and I didn’t ,א ָרי ִא י ִּ מ ִמ י ִע ְ ׁשִי ְו י ִרֹוא ‘ה
always have the patience to wait. But “Hashem is my light and my
sometimes crying makes everything salvation. Whom shall I fear?”
a little easier, and you can deal with ,ד ָח ְפ ֶא י ִּ מ ִמ יַּי ַח זֹוע ָמ ‘ה
silence longer.
“Hashem is the stronghold
In the end, my father said, “We Porats of my life. Of whom shall I
aren’t afraid or embarrassed by be afraid?”
ֹ
anyone or anything in the world.” י ִר ָש ְּ ב ת ֶא לֹכ ֱא ֶל םי ִע ֵר ְמ י ַל ָע בר ְק ִּ ב
ׂ
,ּול ָפ ָנ ְו ּול ְ ׁש ָכ ה ָּ מ ֵה י ִל י ַבְיֹא ְו י ַר ָצ
I wasn’t crying anymore. I looked at
him. “When evildoers approach
me to consume my flesh,
“I always remind myself,” said my when my oppressors and
father, “that if I need to be embarrassed, enemies come toward
I need only be embarrassed before G-d me, they stumble and
and my own heart.” fall!”, my father called
“In front of G-d,” he explained, loudly.
“because He is the Creator of truth ה ֶנ ֲח ַמ י ַל ָע ה ֶנ ֲח ַּ ת ם ִא, “If
and justice, and knows when I haven’t a camp encamps by
been honest with myself or others, and me…” prompted my
in front of my heart because it was father.
created in the image of G-d, and if I
ֹ
listen to it carefully, it knows what the י ִּ ב ִל א ָרי ִי אל, “My
right thing to do is and whether it’s heart will not fear,”
even worth my while to listen to what I answered from
other people are saying.” memory.

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