Kippurim

 

10^th October, 2024

 

 

This week I wish you a good year, Shabbat Shalom, kind thoughts and a Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) of contemplation and accepting responsibility for our own mistakes.

 

When my children were small, I was a Cheder (Sunday school) teacher in the beautiful Reading Synagogue. Reading, Berkshire that is. It wasn’t an easy class, partly because I knew all the children and their parents and partly because they were from homes of a diverse level of beliefs, but I loved them all, knowing that at 10 and 11 years old, their minds were open to learning as at no other time. I think I managed to get most of my thoughts across to them.  I wanted them to learn and then choose for themselves, to make an educated choice.

 

When it came close to Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, I changed my tack, doing my best to explain to them that although one can atone for virtually every sin in the book, along with a solemn promise to change and do better, there is one sin that the Almighty will not forgive and that is if you publicly embarrass another person. That is the sin that one must ask forgiveness from the person you have insulted, embarrassed or shamed publicly, from idle chit-chat to malicious gossip. It is so clever! In fact it is even cleverer than simply asking for forgiveness because if you ask for forgiveness three times and the other party says no, does not accept your plea, the sin reverts to them.

 

Could, or should this be applied to countries as well as individuals? The lies told about Israel every single day, nay, every single hour, are heinous crimes inducing dire results. Those very lies have changed the lives of each and every one of us and become more ludicrous and dangerous by the minute. The news media, bought to a large extent by Qatari money, has exacerbated the situation, perpetrated half truths which is absorbed by a thoughtless public. Perhaps the greatest sin is the twisted memory of the media who lap up the stories of destruction yet forget how it started, with the slaughter, rape, dismembering, torture and kidnap of good folk, irrespective of their race, creed or colour. It was lies taught every single day that turned men into savages capable of what they saw as revenge.

 

It is those lies that have turned every synagogue into a fortress and caused Jews throughout the world to take their mezuzot from their doorposts and the skullcaps off their heads. It is those lies, carefully orchestrated that have instilled existential fear into the hearts of Jews everywhere.

 

Nominations brought before the Nobel Prize Committee are presented by former recipients and one of those has nominated UNWRA for the Nobel Peace Prize! Surely the ultimate insult, taking that austere organisation to its lowest level ever – well almost the worst - Adolf Hitler and Stalin (twice) were nominated and Yassir Arafat actually received one! The lies told every day in the United Nations, which is the mouthpiece for calumny of the most vicious nature, most definitely fit the criteria for atonement.

 

This new year, the days after Rosh Hashana, should have been days of quiet contemplation and prayer, but it is a quagmire of killing, missiles, rockets, terror attacks and hatred. Hezb-Allah (not Lebanon), Hamas, Yemen, Iran, Syria and endless others have fired rockets and launched missiles at this tiny piece of land. Soldiers have died in a war we don’t want and never wanted, children have become orphans; wives widows and husbands widowers; parents mourn their children and the number of severely injured is enormous. Missiles hitting towns like Maalot, Rosh Hanikra, Nahariya, Carmiel, Haifa, and yesterday a deadly terrorist attack in Hadera. After many years the farms and towns along the south of Israel is much quieter whereas the north has become the target. This is a hard war but a just one.

 

All of the above is true, but Israel has some staunch allies; not only the Moslem countries of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain who have banned any public support for Hamas, but a world wide expression of support from our greatest allies, the Christian Community. Their unwavering support for Israel, a support which comes from a sense of right and wrong, helps us to breathe, makes us feel that there is hope. I don’t need to thank you because it is logical that those with similar moral beliefs will stand together. I should not forget our steadfast Moslem friends too, those who stand up and speak out at great risk to their lives from their own people.

 

Since the internet has proven its ability to divide, to induce hate, let’s turn it into a tool for unity. If millions are convinced of lies they can be taught truth! Use their inability to think for themselves, to be convinced by cant, to our advantage. Not to lecture the truth but to learn how to talk their talk. It is not logical that we are so fearful of teenage TikTok-ers etc that we don’t fight back with simple truth in a manner that they connect to.

 

This past year the people of Israel have shone almost everyone taking on a role of helping others. Some in a dramatic role some of us just by talking to those who need support. From the first ghastly moments Moslem and Jew showed their true mettle, many going back into the line of fire to save young people at the Nova Music Festival. Several of them were honoured in a ceremony this week. People like Oz Davidian who left his family in their safe room and went back 15 times to save people running on the road. Noam Bonfeld, left his young family, sped south and with just a small hand-gun fought off dozens of terrorists calling his unit into action too. Rabbi Betzalel Heller, reported to his unit on October 7th, and minus a few short breaks, has been away from home fighting in the north and in Gaza for the 11 months since. Youssef Ziadna, A Moslem Bedouin, received a call for help from a young client, Amit, took his van to find her and soon found himself dodging bullets from all directions but it didn’t stop him. Youssef located Amit, and filled his 14-seater with 26 people, before driving them off-road to safety in Kibbutz Tze’elim. The list of heroes is long, includes every soldier, every young wife left behind caring for their family for months on end never knowing if their husband, father, will come home. We owe them huge debt of gratitude.

 

Strangely enough, as I have told you before, in the Jerusalem area, physically, life goes on although psychologically we are deeply aware of our situation. Watching Israeli television is somewhat surreal in that one can be watching a comedy programme but on the right of the screen there may well be a long list of villages, towns and cities which are under “Code Red”, incoming missiles, rockets or drones. We go to the supermarket and the theatre, the cinema and restaurants, but always with safety at the back of our minds. I have a special app on my phone which will give the “Red Alert” should we need to know. In truth I have only heard it on one occasion, last weeks Iranian onslaught of ballistic missiles.

 

Enough! Back to the reason I wrote to you today, atonement. I received a large number of greetings, wishing us well over the fast and that we should be enscribed in the book of life. Beautiful messages although, in my opinion, it isn’t really the book of life, it is the “good” book, that the Almighty recognises that we are deserving of praise for the past year. It is a complicated day, Yom Kippur. Complicated and yet so simple. It’s a day over which we have complete control, either be good, be a mensch, live a good life caring for others, or don’t. There are those who fast without praying and those who pray without fasting, and it really doesn’t matter. The streets of Israel become silent, no cars, only the shouts of glee of children who whoop down hills on their bicycles, taking advantage of the freedom of empty highways. Unfortunately that also means that the ambulance service is extra busy caring for broken bones! The silence is special, not an eerie silence but a warm, all encompassing silence. We tend to go to the synagogue nearby, in Mevasseret, something of a climb but it feels good to hear familiar prayers and after the Kol Nidre service which takes place on the eve of Yom Kippur, we join the hundreds of people “shpatzeering” walking, chatting, greeting and meeting along the main road as we walk home down the famous twists and turns of the Seven Sisters road, the old road to Jerusalem.

 

And now for my words, my atonement, from my heart.

 

To those I have wronged, I ask forgiveness

To those I may have helped I wish I had done more

To those I have neglected to help I ask understanding

To those I who helped me I give sincere thanks

 

Tamir Grinberg is an Israeli singer who sings of the prayer on all our hearts to bring the hostages home, to finally know that some have survived and that the families can bury those who were killed. Bring You Home https://youtu.be/wOVTFlTkwDs?si=a_Ur4tngkcnMd_I1

 

Carrine Bassilli is a young Lebanese singer, openly, and widely criticised, for her support of Israel. She chose to sing the Israeli Eurovision song “Hurricane” in Arabic and in the near future intends working closely with Eden Golan who bravely sang the song in Sweden. These are not the changed words that the Eurovision committee demanded these are the original, heart-rending words of the song.  Read the comments below, they are as important as the song.    https://youtu.be/lJlX8kwnAHU?si=t0uOCsr1hGJxK9mX

 

The Eve of the Day of Atonement (Erev Yom haKippurim) begins with a prayer, orison, plea to the Almighty to give us new beginnings. The beautiful, emotive rendition by Rabbi Azi Schwartz was probably not recorded on Yom Kippur, when we are not allowed to do so, but I loved his voice  https://youtu.be/5tJ_O1g9zNM?si=Xld8fzM9PePLXsSi

 

Another year, another war, another challenge but we have survived worse. We have to stand proud, proud of who and what we are. It is irrelevant if we are Christian, Jew, Moslem, Hindi, we are people who cherish our freedom, gosh what a misused word, and must unite. 

 

I wish you peace, I wish you freedom, I wish you the ability to show the world how good people behave.

 

Shabbat Shalom, Chag Sameach and of course G’mar Chatima Tova – May you be enscribed in the Good Book and know only kindness.

 

Pray for our hostages, those who came home but still suffer horrific nightmares, for those still in captivity, the bodies of those already slaughtered and of course for our soldiers, each and every one a hero. Bring them home.

 

With love

Sheila