Joining the Ranks of Jewish History
Jewish Action: These days, instead of strengthening Torah learning and observance, rabbis need to spend much time and effort on security matters. Can we draw any chizuk from the current situation?
Rabbi Elliot Schrier:
Rabbis are very short on time to begin with, and now we find ourselves even shorter on time and having to focus our energies on things we’d rather not be focusing on. But with that cost there’s an opportunity for gain as well—in terms of Jewish pride. In the immediate aftermath of October 7, my mother said, “I have never felt so much pain and I’ve never felt so much Jewish pride.” And I think that’s how many Jews have been feeling.
When we were preparing for our counter-protest, one of the members of my shul commented that perhaps in addition to all the pro-Israel signs we were putting up, we should have put up a sign for the protestors saying, “Thank you for uniting us, thank you for bringing our people together,” because [the protest] has created that sentiment.
And while dealing with all of these issues caused us to postpone an important Torah study initiative we were working on for a long time, the amount that we gained in terms of chesed, and in terms of the people who were not so involved [in the shul previously] who began stepping up to get involved in security or in Israel advocacy, has been incredible. Of course, I’d like people to be more involved in Torah learning and tefillah and other shul initiatives and programs. But very often security is the first step. Once they are invested in securing their shul, because it’s their shul, they might be motivated to get involved in other shul initiatives as well.
This is our new normal. Dealing with continued attempts at intimidation and harassment is part and parcel of Jewish history.
In “V’hi she’amdah” in the Haggadah, we recite “b’chol dor vador. . .—in every generation there are those who seek to destroy us and G-d delivers us from their hands.” Many of us developed a kind of illusion that “every generation” has skipped our generation. We finally have a reminder that that’s not the case.
This was most acute for me at our counter-demonstration. We brought along a good sound system, and at one point we started playing “V’hi she’amdah,” and as I was standing by the barricade listening to that song, watching the flags and hearing the pro-Hamas chants and the vile rhetoric, I also remembered the end of the song: v’Hakadosh Baruch Hu matzileinu mi’yadam. Our eternal truth maintains that we will always be delivered, and there is always a bright ending in store for our people.
Rabbi Ya’akov Trump:
Bari Weiss, a journalist and the author of How to Fight Anti-Semitism, recently said, “The vacation from Jewish history is over.” After a brief reprieve in the last few decades, we are rejoining the Jewish Diaspora history, a minority persecuted for no good reason, spending astronomical amounts of time and energy on survival. It is sobering.
Yet two ideas give me strength during this time.
Firstly, I would say I’m prouder to be a Jew now than I was before. I’m proud to be reminded that I am on the moral high ground fighting for good, versus people who support evil and debauchery. I am proud that our community has woken up to fight for something. We did not ask pro-Hamas protesters to create this reality for us. But they did. And now we have something to fight for. It is important for our children, who are the products of a complacent Western society, to remember what it means to value something, to fight for something and to be proud to be Jewish. There are many people in the Jewish community for whom coming to a shiur or davening is not their thing, but since we have been under attack in Israel and here in the US, these folks have stepped up. They have joined the security committees in shuls, they have led missions, they have collected money for soldiers. . . . These are all valuable ways that allow more Jews to connect to the Jewish people. These new avenues of proud Jewish engagement are extremely important.
The second point is that ultimately, Judaism has a happy ending. When the Vizhnitzer Rebbe came to Israel, he was asked by his Chassidim, “What do you think about Israel?” He said, “There is one phrase in Israel that I love, and that is ‘hakol b’seder.’ It doesn’t just mean ‘everything will be alright.’ It means that ‘everything in Judaism is in the Seder,’” that is, the Passover Seder. Sometimes there are detours and it’s complicated, but the Jewish people trend upward.We are still in the middle of the story, but I know from our faith that the terminus is one of hope and redemption.