Page 40 - HaMizrachi Australia Sukkot 5781

Sivan Rahav Meir and Yedidya Meir are an Israeli power couple and among the country’s most popular media
personalities, respected across the religious-secular spectrum. Their journalism on television, radio, and in print

RUACH YISRAEL

A Gradual Redemption

Sivan Rahav Meir

and those skills saved her life during The family didn’t plan it, but in the
the war. After the Holocaust, Savta picture taken of the “birthday girl”
made Aliyah aboard the ship named in the sukkah in Yerushalayim, just
‘Hatikvah.’ The British authorities behind her is a hand embroidered
caught her, and she was sent back to decoration with the section from the
Europe. My father was born in Italy in Talmud Yerushalmi that describes the
a DP camp, where he spent the first gradual, slow redemption of Am Yisrael:
year and a half of his life. In the end,
ִ
ְ
ׂ
the British released families with chil- ה ָּ ת ּ פ ַל ֲח ן ֶּב ןֹוע ְמ ׁש י ִּב ַר ְו ה ָּב ַר אָּי ִח י ִּב ַר :ה ֶש ֲע ַמ
dren, and Savta arrived in Israel pre- ּוא ָר ְו ,ה ָת ְצי ִר ְק ִּב ל ֵּב ְר ַא ת ַע ְק ִּב א ָד ָה ְּב ןי ִכ ְּל ַה ְמ ןֹוו ֲה
ַ
ֶ
cisely on the 29th of November 1947, ה ָּב ַר אָּי ִח י ִּב ַר ר ַמ ָא . ּ ה ָרֹוא ע ַק ָּב ׁש ר ַח ּׁ ש ַה ת ֶלֶּי ַא
ְ
ְ
ִ
the day on which the UN voted that ן ָת ָּל ֻאְּג אי ִה ך ָּכ ,י ִּבי ִר ְּב :ה ָּ ת ּ פ ַל ֲח ן ֶּב ןֹוע ְמ ׁש י ִּב ַר ְל
ֶ
ְ
ׂ
the British Mandate would end and a אי ִה ּׁ ש ה ַמ ל ָּכ .ה ָא ְמ ִק ,ה ָא ְמ ִק ,ה ָּל ִח ּ ת ַּב :ל ֵא ָר ְשִי ל ׁש ֶ
Jewish state would be formed. ,ימלשורי דומלת) .ת ֶכ ֶל ֹוה ְו ה ָּב ַר אי ִה ,ת ֶכ ֶל ֹוה
(א:א תוכרב
“My grandfather, Savta’s husband,
worked picking produce on farms, “Once, Rabbi Chiya the Great and Rabbi
but he was killed in a car crash only Shimon Ben Chalafta were walking in the
three months after they arrived in Arbel Valley in the early morning, and
Israel. Savta found herself alone; A they saw the first light of dawn breaking
Holocaust survivor, a young widow, through the darkness. Rabbi Chiya said to
and the mother of a small child. She Rabbi Shimon, ‘This is how the redemption
heard that someone she had known of Israel will take place. It will begin slowly,
before the war had moved to Israel, slowly, and gradually grow and strengthen
and they got married and had another all the time.’” (Talmud Yerushalmi,
three children together. Berachot 1:1)
he sukkah you see in this
photo may be temporary, but “All her life, Savta worked as a seam- The story of Savta Tzipporah brings
the story behind it symbol- stress, and later on, she took care of this teaching to life!
Tizes Jewish eternity. This is elderly people. She dedicated her life  First published in Hebrew in Yediot
the story, as told to me by Yehoshua to her family. I remember as a child Acharonot on October 25, 2019.
Goldring: bringing our socks with holes so she
could fix them because, for Savta,
“Our Savta, Tzipporah Kendel, was every small detail and job was of great
born on Chol Hamoed Sukkot in a significance. She always told us that
small village in Transylvania to a you never need to throw anything Sivan Rahav Meir is a media personality
family of Vishnitz Chasidim. This week away – everything can be used, recy- and lecturer. She lives in Jerusalem with her
on Chol Hamoed Sukkot, in the Old cled, or fixed. husband, Yedidya, and their five children,
City of Yerushalayim, she celebrated and serves as World Mizrachi’s Scholar-in-
her 100th birthday, surrounded by her “Before I went to Poland, I spoke with Residence. She is a primetime anchor on
grandchildren. her. She never left the country after Channel 2 News, has a column in Israel’s
arriving in Israel decades ago, but she largest newspaper, Yediot Acharonot, and
“During the Holocaust, Savta was sent wanted me to go there. has a weekly radio show on Galei Tzahal
A member of with all of her family to Auschwitz. In (Army Radio). Sivan was included by Forbes
the Mizrachi the selection, she and her older sister “Savta has merited to marry off all magazine in their list of the 50 most
Speakers Bureau were chosen to live as slave laborers. her grandchildren and has several influential women in Israel, and listed by
mizrachi.org/ She never saw the rest of her family great-grandchildren and even one the Jerusalem Post as one of the 50 most
speakers again. She was good at needlework, great-great-grandchild!” influential Jews in the world.

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