Page 38 - HaMizrachi #29 Yom HaAtzmaut 2021 USA

HOLIDAY READING

Rabbi Dov Lipman

Bubby Knew

dreaded having to make the phone but concluded, “to see my grandchildren which said: “the first buds of the begin-
call. It was February 2004 and we had and great-children settling in Israel, I ning of the redemption through the
ju
I st decided to make aliyah. We lived have nothing but thanks to G-d.” establishment of the State of Israel.”
in Maryland and my grandmother lived They understood the magnitude of what
in New York, and we made the effort for Ten years was happening. My grandmother, and
her to see our children quite regularly. later, my all Holocaust survivors understood the
Bubby came
A survivor of Auschwitz, she was in the to Israel and magnitude of what happened on the 5th
golden years of her life enjoying her chil- visited me in of Iyar 5708. Everyone who lived during
dren, grandchildren, and great-grand- my Knesset the era of the Holocaust and the ensuing
children. Now I was about to tell her office, close to years recognized the miraculous signifi-
that we were moving her great-grand- 70 years after cance of what it means to have a State of
children thousands of miles away. her liberation Israel. This adds deeper meaning to the
transition from Yom HaShoah to Yom
I picked up the phone and put it down from Auschwitz. She sat down, looked HaZikaron to Yom HaAtzmaut.
a few times before I finally dialed. After around and said, “This doesn’t make
some small talk I said, “Bubby, I have any sense. A Jewish State? Israel? The My Bubby, Ethel Kleinman, passed away
some news for you. With G-d’s help we Jewish capital? Yerushalayim? A Jewish last year at the age of 95. She lived to see
are making aliyah this summer. We are parliament? The Knesset? My grandson great-great-grandchildren and radiated
moving to Israel.” as a member of the Knesset? This just with joy when
doesn’t make any sense.” she saw her
There was a pause on the other side great-grand-
of the line and I braced myself for my 70 years earlier, she had arrived at Aus- son, my son,
grandmother to be very legitimately chwitz-Birkenau in a cattle car along in uniform as
upset. But she broke the silence with with her parents, some of her siblings, a commander
ְ
ְ
these words: ם ָ לֹוע ָ ה ך ֶ ל ֶ מ ּוני ֵ קלֹ־ ֱ א 'ה ה ָּ ת ַ א ךּור ָּ ב and many nieces and nephews. That in an IDF
הֶּז ַ ה ן ָ מְּז ַ ל ּונ ָ עי ִּג ִ ה ְ ו ּונ ָ מְּי ִ ק ְ ו ּונָי ֱ ח ֶ ה ֶ ׁש. night, Shavuot 1944, all but she and one combat unit.
After a moment of speechlessness, I of her sisters were exterminated in the In my grandmother’s memory, please
asked, “Bubby, where did that come gas chambers. And here she was in my take a step back to truly internalize and
from?” Knesset office, 70 years later. My Bubby
was right. It doesn’t make any sense. And rejoice over the remarkable times in
She explained: “It is going to be very yet here we are – with Yerushalayim and which we live with the establishment of
painful to have you so far away and not all of Israel available for all Jews – to visit the State of Israel and follow my Bubby’s
to see your children growing up. But or to move to whenever they choose to example to channel that happiness into
when we were on the boat coming to do so. G-d is “hard at work” making the heartfelt thanks to G-d.
America from DP camp in Germany impossible come true in the Holy Land.
after the War, I asked myself the entire
way, ‘Why are we going in this direc- There is no reason for any controversy
tion to another foreign country to the about the magnitude of what happened
Jewish people, when we could be going on Yom HaAtzmaut. Rav Ovadia Yosef
in the other direction, where a new records (Yabia Omer, Orach Chayim Rabbi Dov Lipman is a former MK and the
Jewish State is being established in our 6:41) that three great Charedi rabbis – author of seven books about Judaism and
Israel.
Biblical and ancestral homeland?’” She Rabbi Chatzkel Sarna, Rabbi Zalman
continued that she appreciates how Sorotzkin, and Rabbi Shlomo Zalman A member of the Mizrachi Speakers Bureau
America welcomed the Jewish people, Auerbach – all signed a letter in 1949 mizrachi.org/speakers

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