Dear Friends,
Last Friday Night at the Western Wall, I noticed among the thousands of people, a young man in his mid twenties, with a white Kotel Yarmulka, who looked a little overwhelmed in the crowd of thousands of people praying and singing.
I wanted to reach out to him, but I was thirty feet away and in between there were lots of people and I was in a section of the prayer when one can't speak. I then noticed a friend of mine, a fellow Chabad Rabbi, reach out to him and brought him into a circle of people singing.
I finished my own prayers and went over to him and we started chatting.
It turned out he was in a small Kibbutz just outside Gaza on Oct 7th, and spent 30 hours in the bomb shelter as a pitched battle took place outside his home. He lost friends and neighbors and lives with the memories of that day, each and every day of his life.
Yet he is also a pilot for the Israeli Air Force, and serves Israel each and every day, protecting his people.
After a short but very powerful conversation that lasted a few minutes, he said to us, it is was exactly this kind of care, connection and sentiment, that he was looking for when he came to the Kotel for that night, just to feel connected with his fellow Jew from every stripe and place, and to know that no matter where we are, we are all connected and care about one another.
We exchanged a hearty Shabbat Shalom and he told us to connect with him, on a future visit.
It was just one of many dozens of conversations we had this week as we journeyed up and down Israel, and spoke to people in all different situations and places. Some happy and upbeat conversations, some just regular, and some comforting and painful, or inspiring and full of resilience.
Whether it was on the border of Lebanon with soldiers who have lost their best friends, cheering them up with a BBQ and deep conversations, to visiting damaged homes and the amazing people who have returned to the northern towns of Metullah and Kiryat Shemoneh and elsewhere, or chatting with people demonstrating who don't see eye to eye with others, each encounter and meeting, was profound on so many levels.
As we walked home last Friday night from the Western Wall with thousands of people, a distant explosion and rumble was heard by all of us. Indeed a ballistic missile had been shot down just a few miles outside Tel Aviv, maybe twenty miles away from us, yet life, resilience, joy and hope were all continuing on this Shabbat evening.
This week, we read the portion of Shoftim, in which we are instructed to pursue justice and create a fair justice system and officers to enforce it wherever we live. The portion includes many laws about justice, fairness in law, and responsibility of leaders.
Indeed, Judaism, recognizes and places tremendous emphasis on the fact that life requires justice, laws and morality. Yet also it reminds us that part of the commandment is make sure we have ability to enforce those values and laws.
Yet, in the prayer of the Amida which we recite every day, we pray for a time, when judges who will be inspired by the teachings of Judaism will be restored, and advisors too. We make no mention of officers to enforce the justice, that are mentioned in this week's portion, and instead we just refer to advisors.
It is a subtle yet very powerful idea, as it is indicative of the kind of world which we strive towards and pray for each and every day, when justice and morality will become the norm, and we won't need officers to enforce right and wrong anymore, although we may still need advice and guidance on how to get there.
As we landed back home returning from our Jewish homeland, the many deep and often emotional conversations with so many, are still resonating in our hearts and minds.
They serve as a reminder more than ever, that each and every one of us have a job to do in this world, each of us with our own critical role and part, in slowly but surely helping transform the world, into a world of kindness, justice, morality, and holiness, embodying the Divine values and vision it was created for.
The work ahead of us is plenty, the day is short, but we will get the job done!
Shabbat Shalom & Good Shabbos
Yisroel
P.S Tomorrow at the services and again at the Kiddush, I will share some more anecdotes and powerful stories from our trip.
High Holidays - Next week we will be sharing many updates about the High Holidays Programs and services!