These are momentous times.
The next few days are momentous days.
Yom Hazikaron falls on Sunday night and Yom Ha’atzma’ut, the very next evening. Less than a week ago, we commemorated Yom Hashoah V’hagvurah. Together, these three dates of remembrance, commemoration and celebration signify the turning of Jewish history from shadowed darkness to new dawn. In the history of nations, there has been no such turning. Ever.
We know beyond a doubt that Hamas, their supporters, funders, collaborators and agents around the world are intent on erasing the Jewish state from existence and, we must add, as well as Jews wherever we live. Indeed, they make no effort to hide their intention. We also know, because the Islamist supremacists and radicals have told whoever is paying attention, that they regard Israel as the first target, the vanguard of the unbelieving West, of democracy and freedom.
The Jewish State of Israel has shown, however, that it will not be erased. Nor will Jews recoil from being who we are and we have always been. Three thousand years ago, the psalmist proclaimed the permanency of Jewish wilfulness: “We shall not die, but live!” In this, the writer was resolutely echoing God’s injunction to the Jewish people some five hundred years earlier to “choose life.”
And so, we shall. And so, we will. Always. We have not yet – nor ever will – lost our hope.
We shall educate and raise our children to know their history, their faith, their traditions, their folkways, their mission…themselves. That is how we choose life. We choose Jewish life. No one in an encampment on any campus anywhere in the world, shouting his or her bilious, vile contempt for Jews and the Jewish state will ever divert us from this divine imperative.
On Sunday night we dwell in reflection and solemnity.
On Monday night we celebrate and recite Shehechiyanu.
The following editorial appeared in The Canadian Jewish News some 30 years ago. It attempts to convey a sense of the turning of Jewish history.
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A story is told about a Jew from Canada who visited Jerusalem on Yom Hazikaron, the day set aside by the Knesset as a remembrance to Israel’s fallen soldiers. He went to Har Herzl to take part in the remembrance ceremonies.
As often happens in the hills of Jerusalem in early May, even before noon, the sky was a very deep blue, the kind of blue that falls closer to violet than to green, the kind of blue that must have been the color t’chelet mentioned in the Bible. A mild breeze blew from the valley to the west. cool against the sun, carrying whispers through the branches of the pine trees. And the quality of the light was dazzling, allowing the eye to see the smallest detail on the furthermost horizon.
There were many people on the mountain that clear spring morning, almost all of them hovering for a time near a grave, leaving behind a stone or a flower, a marker both of permanent love and permanent loss. After the official remembrance ceremony, the Canadian happened to notice an old man crying inconsolably at one particular grave site. As he moved closer and could hear the old man’s sobbing, he understood the grave to be that of the old man’s son. Others, undoubtedly members of the family, tried to comfort the old man and remove him from his place near the grave, and abate his anguish and grief. But the old man refused to be comforted, and refused to be moved. Instead, he stretched his arms across the grave, occasionally tracing with his boney fingers the name etched permanently into the stone casement, quietly sobbing.
The Canadian sat nearby, terribly shaken by the old man’s loss and overcome by the man’s sorrow. He watched as mourning matched memory and grief poured forth endlessly from the parent like the relentless rays of the sun high above in the deep blue sky.
The next day, which actually began that night, the Canadian went out into boulevards and avenues of Jerusalem to celebrate Yom Ha’atzmaut with the rest of Israel. The streets were alive with festival and song. The small park near his hotel was filled with picnics and parties.
By a coincidence of light and timing, his eye caught sight of a group across the way singing, laughing and dancing. As he approached them, hoping to join the circle, he noticed that in its very middle was the same old man whose heart he had seen broken the day before. He was swaying and twirling. waving his arms and singing with energy and enthusiasm.
Unable to contain his curiosity, he went over to the old man and asked him politely, in the manner of most Canadians: “Only yesterday, I saw you lie down at your son’s grave, calling to heaven, your tears watering the earth. How can you dance and celebrate this way today?
The old man seemed pleased with the question. “How can I not celebrate this way? My son fought and died so that I – and everyone you see here – would be able to sing and dance this day.”
The Canadian understood and was immediately welcomed to join in the dancing circle, which he did.
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June 11, 2024 has been set for Ontario’s appeal of the 46-page decision by Judge Eugenia Papageorgiou denying the province’s request to dismiss GAJE’s application for fairness in educational funding before it has actually been argued in court. If the appeal fails, the application proceeds to a hearing on its merits. If the appeal succeeds, GAJE will appeal.
If you wish to contribute to GAJE’s lawsuit, please click here.
For further information, please contact Israel Mida at: imida1818@gmail.com
Charitable receipts for donations for income tax purposes will be issued by Mizrachi Canada. Your donations will be used for the sole purpose of underwriting the costs of the lawsuit.
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Shabbat shalom.
Am Yisrael Chai. A meaningful, contemplative Yom Zicaron. And a Yom Atzma’ut samayach.
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)
May 10, 2024
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education 