The poet Leah Goldberg was part of the revival of Hebrew in the 1930’s in Israel. She dreamed in Russian but insisted on writing in Hebrew. In 1943, in the midst of the horrors of WW II, she wrote, “Is it true – will there ever come days of forgiveness and mercy?” *
As we begin the month of Elul, the month marked by the call for forgiveness, I find myself echoing the same question: “Will there ever come days of forgiveness and mercy?” Fifty days of war have left us with a kaleidoscope of pictures and moments that are hard, if not impossible, to just push aside:
– The terrorists literally emerging from the bottom of the earth
– The long file of soldiers entering the Gaza Strip
– The baby faces of those who were killed
– The helicopters carrying the wounded
– The many civilians offering food and love to soldiers at stations next to Gaza as they took breaks during the fighting
– The thousands of mourners who attended the funerals of lone soldiers killed in battle
– The devastation in Gaza
– The face of four year old Daniel Tragerman, killed in a mortar attack in his home on Kibbutz Nahal Oz
There are no victory cries in public squares here, only a tense anticipation for signs of tranquility and a deep urge to go back to our daily routine. With seventy one soldiers and civilians killed, with tens of wounded, many of them still facing long periods of rehabilitation, with the pictures of pain and devastation coming from Gaza and the vague picture of a future settlement, it seems there is no reason to rejoice.
Having said that, I still believe there was a victory, and it goes well with the Torah portions from Deuteronomy that we are now reading: “See, I have set before you this day life and good, and death and evil” (Deuteronomy 30:15); or a few verses later: “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both you and your seed may live“(Deuteronomy 30:19).
Time after time in this battle we proved that we chose life, that we love life, that we regard life as our highest value, our highest gift. You don’t march in public squares with flags and marching bands to prove that; you prove it by going back to living and celebrating it in any way possible.
At the same time, our choice of life and good is a challenge. As the dust of war settles, we have begun a process of self-examination, a process so typical of this time in the Jewish year. In the internal arena we are left with the difficult issue of exercising our freedom of speech. It seems that people and leaders from both left and right have to re-evaluate their choice of words and try to consider the many sensitivities that were made ever more apparent during these times of war, as well as the thin lines drawn between words and deeds. We are left with the question whether restraint, devotion and solidarity that were apparent during the war can endure when the emergency time is over.
We pray that our leaders and each and everyone one of us will have the wisdom, the patience and the ability to see afar, to make the repairs that we need to do as we welcome the New Year that is just around the corner.
Going back to Leah Goldberg poem, we pray that there will come “days of forgiveness and mercy.”
I thank you for your support in words, thoughts and prayers during these difficult times. As at this time every year, I urge you to renew your support of Bavat Ayin
Congregation by sending your donations and overseas membership fee to:
Kehilat Bavat Ayin
P.O. Box 6981
Rosh Ha’ayin, Israel 48630
or: http://kbyonline.org/bavat-ayin/index.html
*
a link to a musical version of this song with English subtitleshttps:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6nZswLOKUA
For the English translation of the lyrics see: http://menachemmendel.net/blog/leah-goldberg-will-there-ever-come-days/