A friend and colleague of mine, Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld, recently led a group of his congregants from Washington, DC to Israel to express solidarity with the people of Sderot. Here are some of his beautiful thoughts:
All together there were 27 of us. It was ten o’clock at night. Some of the group had never been to Israel before and wanted to go straight to the Western Wall. My six year old son, Roey was on the trip as well. It was his first time in Israel.
I said to Roey: “Do you want to go Kotel tonight or would you like to go early in the morning?” He immediately said, “Both.”
I saw this excitement and enthusiasm in the faces of so many people on the group. I watched the expression on Doug’s face as he saw the Kotel for the first time in his life. I saw Jordan literally embrace the Kotel as if the wall were an old friend.
Those of us who dipped in the famous mikvah of the Kabbalist the Ari felt the excitement that comes with a spiritual cleansing that accompanies an immersion in the mikvah.
I saw this same cleansing and renewal in the body language of the people on our trip who gathered before dawn so we can daven vatikin (with sunrise) at the Kotel. The idea of praying at sunrise is to daven to Hashem at the very first moment that Halakhah allows. It is always an amazing experience doing so at the Kotel. There is so much noise as people shout the prayers aloud and then as the entire plaza reaches the Amidah at sunrise…total silence. That silence always overwhelms me.
This enthusiasm and excitement is the emotion we should always have in our service of Hashem.
The paradigm of enthusiasm and excitement is this week’s Torah portion. Mosheh called for volunteers to build and donate to the Mishkan. But almost immediately we are told: “vayavou kol hachamim…va-yomeru el moshe…marbim ha-am le-havi mideh ha-avodah le-melacha, all the contractors came and told Moshe, the people are bringing too many donations, there is not enough work to go around!”
The enthusiasm and excitement was overwhelming when the call came to build the Mishkan. That excitement is what we should all strive for in our religious lives. Yet, sometimes, the excitement wanes and we need to be inspired. When I want to be in inspired I travel to Israel. On our trip I met so many inspiring people.
Here is one example …
On Friday a few people from our group traveled to Sederot, a town of 25,000 people that borders Gaza. Sederot was founded in 1951 (note that that is well before the six day war) and is recognized by everyone as being inside the green line. Yet, Sederot has been under daily Kassam rocket attacks for the past four years. These rocket attacks have intensified greatly after Israel withdrew from Gaza.
The first place we stopped in Sederot was at Hesder Yeshiva Sederot. This is a Yeshiva in Sederot where the men do army service combined with Torah study. The head rabbi of the Yeshiva—Rav Fendel–married a woman who grew up one block from me, so I felt comfortable calling him up and asking for an appointment.
We called him 15 minutes before arriving and he told us that a rocket had literally just fallen. When we arrived he showed us a picture of how a rocket had fallen only ten feet away from him but had miraculously not exploded. He then showed us how many of the students in his yeshiva slept every night in a bomb shelter.
Here is the amazing thing. Imagine what he was doing in the face of these daily rockets? He was expanding. The more the rockets rained down, the quicker the Yeshiva was building and expanding. The Torah of the Yeshiva would provide the moral strength for the entire city of Sederot.
From the moment the “code red” siren sounds the people of Sederot have 16 seconds to get to shelter. I asked him if we could arrange something so that the “code red” also lights a signal in our synagogue so that during those 16 seconds we can recite special prayers for the people of Sederot.
After meeting with Rav Fendel we went to meet with Chavvah. Chavvah is 42 years old and is the mother of three children, the youngest is nine. Just last Friday night a Kassam hit her building during Shabbat dinner. She cried to us that her nine year old has suffered tremendously since the Kassams started intensifying. She said he is afraid to sleep by himself and even go to the bathroom by himself. He is afraid to go outside and play. When the Kassams are quiet for a few days he gets an A on his tests; then the Kassams return and he gets a D. We asked her why she doesn’t move. She said she has no money to move and she continued: “If I give up on Sederot, I am giving up on all of Israel.”
We left her apartment feeling sad and shaken by the tremendous struggle she lives on a daily basis. Suddenly we heard music coming from the main market of Sederot. Unbeknownst to us 10,000 people from all over Israel had descended upon Sederot in a show of unity with the besieged city. The idea was that they would do their Shabbat shopping in the markets of Sederot in order to help the city’s devastated economy.
A festive feeling overcame the city as people were dancing in the streets and strangers were hugging each other. One person from our group took out his guitar and started to sing. We hurriedly emptied our pockets of all our money as we started to buy anything we could find.
I found a Kiddush cup which our group bought for the shul and I have with me today.
From now on when we recite Kiddush in our congregation our cup will overflow with the courage and bravery of the people of Sederot. Their Torah and their moral strength will help sanctify us and inspire us. And every time I answer Amen to a Kiddush in our congregation, I will be thinking about the people of Sederot and praying that Hashem may guard them and protect them.
Joyous Judaism 