Page 21 - HaMizrachi YH USA 2020_Neat

Rabbi Stewart Weiss
SILENCE, SOLDIERS,

AND SWITCHING GEARS

hortly after our eldest son, Ari, and shelve the painful memories of enter into the club that no one wants
fell in battle in Shechem-Nablus wars fought and loved ones lost, and to join, try to prevent anyone else
Salmost 18 years ago, I went celebrate the dream of Israel renewed from becoming a member. And we try
shopping for a car. The salesman was and resurgent. The stick shift grinds, to put the best face on our situation,
quite surprised when I told him I the gearbox smokes, but somehow we taking pride in the service and sacri-
wanted a manual shift rather than an make the switch and Israel rumbles fice of our sons.
automatic. He told me that while in along.
generations past, virtually every car Soon after I came to Israel, my sabra
in Israel had a standard transmission, For the bereaved families, every day is cousin picked me up early one March
those days were long gone. “What Memorial Day. We never blow out the morning and said, “Today, you will
you’re looking for is the ‘old Israel,’” he candle or blot out of our mind that learn all you need to know about this
told me, sure that I was making some frozen picture of our soldier-son illu- country.”
kind of mistake. “No,” I corrected minated on the wall of Yad LaBanim We drove to Mount Hermon, where
him, “this car exactly represents the on the night of Yom HaZikaron. We we went sledding on a thin layer of
character and condition of Israel – live and limp with that loss, as if with snow. Then we caught a plane in Rosh
then and now – and that’s why I insist a limb blown away or a sense of sight Pina and flew to Eilat, where we went
on it.” And still drive it. impaired, and it is never more than a snorkeling off the sunny Coral Beach.
familiar song or deficient family pic-
This is a country where, if we are to ture away. And yet, we want to live, “Israel is a land of colors and con-
survive, we must be adept at switch- too. We don’t want to curl up and die trasts,” he told me, “a place where in
ing gears – emotional gears. We are or wallow in our grief. We still want the morning you can be shivering but
constantly, continually confronted to enjoy this wonderful world and in the afternoon you are sweating. It
by highs and lows, ups and downs, country in which we live; we deserve is a tiny country in kilometers, but
triumphs and tragedies, and must be to enjoy it. a huge nation in experiences - and
prepared to ride out those extremes determination.”
of daily life. Even as we, along with So we grit our teeth, gather our cour- But if you want to get from one end
the rest of the world, battle the deadly age and resolve to switch those gears, to the other, you had better learn to
Coronavirus, we trumpet the rise of no matter how tough it may be. We switch those gears.
our Kinneret to its highest level in dry the tears, embrace our kids and
two decades. Even as we continue reach for the future, while never
to be threatened by incorrigible letting go of the past. We compart-
Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists on mentalize, creating a sacred space
our northern and southern borders, for silence and sadness but reserv-
we are buoyed by the fact that Isra- ing another corner for laughter and
el’s “satisfaction level” consistently lightheartedness.
ranks among the top 10 highest in the We try to stay positive, our eyes on
world. the road ahead. We, the all-too-large

How do we jump so effortlessly community of bereaved families,
between the extremes and live in two try to bring some good out of the
radically different worlds at the same catastrophe by building synagogues
time? and schools and day-care centers.
We channel all our furious energy
This question is most acute this week into social causes, fighting for justice
when we make the transition between by screaming our opposition to the
the somber sirens of Yom HaZikaron freeing of sadistic Palestinian pris- Rabbis Stewart Weiss is director of the
Jewish Outreach Center of Ra’anana and
and the flag-waving festivities of Yom oners or the ceding of Israeli land to the father of Staff Sgt. Ari Weiss z”l, who
HaAtzmaut. In just a breath, a heart- the very monsters who murdered our fell in a fire-fight with Hamas terrorists in
beat, we are asked to dry the tears kids. We, whom G-d has seen fit to 2002

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