A special moment
And then back to "regular" but a little changed, I hope
Displaced for over a year, our son's yeshiva was finally allowed to return home!
After such a difficult year, when something this good happened I wanted to be part of it. Even though it's far, even though I had so many other things to do.
It was worth hours on the road, worth the disruption, to see the Kinneret again, the hills green after the first winter rains, the Hermon!
To pass the big supermarket on the way into the city and see the lights on!
We walked up the hill to the yeshiva with flags, singing and dancing.
The Torah scrolls came home, too, to their ark.
Rabbis, army commanders, bereaved parents from the yeshiva community, had things to say.
About the eternity of the Jewish people, the Torah and the Land, about faith and hope and holding on against all odds.
It was a powerful and joyous moment and I'm so grateful we could be part of it.
Next morning was a "regular" day. Or was it?
The challenge of celebrations, I think, is to let them illuminate the glory of regular, the miracle of having a day, even without something "special" to celebrate.
To shop for groceries, write, go to the gym.
Learn Torah, make a meal, make a bed, prepare another lesson plan.
But with a heightened awareness of the gift of Now. The gift of Life. Even a difficult, messy far from clear or perfect one.
To feel myself carrying Jewish history forward. One day, one mitzva at a time.
Yeshiva - like a college or seminary but where students exclusively study Jewish wisdom (Torah, Talmud and more)
Kinneret - Sea of Galilee
Hermon - Mt. Hermon in northeastern Israel, on the border with Syria
Torah - can refer to the scroll from which we read a portion of the 5 books of Moses in synagogue, or more generally the corpus of Jewish teaching
mitzva - a thing we are commanded to do, or refrain from doing, in Jewish tradition. Shares a root with the word tzavta = togetherness, teamwork, implying that living and acting in accordance to the Law is how we are on God’s team
That tsunami wave crashing on the shore has been in motion a long time & finally here it is.
And! you and yours were there to herald it.
Life is very good.
Beautiful