January 16, 2024|ו' שבט ה' אלפים תשפ"ד We need to cry "Achenu" and to sing "Am Ha-Netzach"
Print ArticleLeora, my daughter, is on a YU-sponsored mission visiting Israel this week and she is having a very difficult time. An amazing time, but a difficult time. She sees all the soldiers with their spirits lifted and those who have lost so much expressing faith in God and hope for a bright future, and she breaks down crying. Approximately 1400 dead and approximately 130 hostages, hundreds wounded, scores traumatized. She told me that it is often so hard to feel inspired because all that she can think about when she is there is the loss. Yes, the emunah, the faith and the resilience are amazing, but the pain is overwhelming. On Thursday she told me that her group visited Ofakim where parents of two sons who were killed dedicated a Sefer Torah and they danced through the streets of Ofakim with the Sefer Torah. When they arrived at the spot where the two sons were killed, all the mother wanted was for them to dance. The mother wanted to be mekadesh, to sanctify, the place where her two sons were killed. The experience was unreal.
Many of us know the story of Miriam Peretz. Her eldest son, Uriel, was killed in Lebanon in combat and a few years later her other son, Eliraz, was killed in Gaza. In between the death of her two children, her husband died of heartache. She once said that when she arrived in Israel as a 10-year-old girl from Morocco, she vividly remembers how her father bent down and kissed the earth of Eretz Yisrael. She said, “My father kissed the ground once when he came home, but I kiss the ground twice every year when I go visit my children buried in the holy Land of Israel.”
And then there is Hadas Lowenstern, whose husband Elisha was killed in battle. Her faith is off the charts. She absolutely loved her husband and she was obviously devastated when she heard the horrific news of his death. And she said, “His death is secondary to me. He only died once. But he lived every day.” And she said, “My husband died. That was Hashem’s plan. But I am alive and my six children are alive and we will learn Torah and do mitzvot and we plan to live such a wonderful life. We will be a happy Jewish family in Eretz Yisrael and this will be our victory.”
Leora and I talked about why she is having such a difficult time because this is like a mourning period for her. She is experiencing the death and the devastation first-hand for the first time since October 7th. She feels that it’s almost insensitive not to be in a constant state of sadness during this trip. That’s not to say that she is not inspired, but she feels that it’s not right to feel anything but sadness when she comes face to face with the horror. She also understands that at some point you have to decide to live. You have to decide to persevere. She understands that we as a nation cannot simply wallow in self-pity. There is a time for shiva and there is a time to rise from shiva. We have no choice as a nation but to rise.
But I think that there is something else going on here. I think that many of our brothers and sisters in Eretz Yisrael are not merely moving forward because they have no choice, but they are moving forward because they have this superhuman strength where they understand that no matter what obstacles we face, we are aware of a bigger picture. There is something that is much bigger than any one of us individually. Therefore, we will cry and we will mourn, but then we will rise and we will laugh and we will sing.
I think of the bigger picture and I think about God’s grand plan that He shares with Moshe in the beginning of the Parsha of freeing the Bnei Yisrael from slavery, taking them as a nation and bringing them to the Promised Land. והוצאתי והצלתי וגאלתי ולקחתי והבאתי. This is God’s grand plan and Moshe is so excited about this grand plan that he hopes to cheer his people up and raise them from their doldrums, but he is unsuccessful. ולא שמעו אל משה מקוצר רוח ומעבודה קשה. They are unwilling to listen to Moshe because of their shortness of spirit and their hard work. And I read this and I ask myself what is it that holds them back from their belief in God’s master plan? What is this קוצר רוח and what is עבודה קשה?
The Ramban writes that the circumstances of the Bnei Yisrael did not allow them to believe. They suffered from קוצר רוח, from a shortness of spirit. They were only worried about their immediate survival, that they wouldn’t be beaten by their superiors for not doing their jobs and they were uninterested in some dream of a better tomorrow. And they suffered from עבודה קשה. The work was difficult so they didn’t even have time to think.
If we only focus on what is immediately in front of us then we don’t think about the big picture, why are we truly here and what is our mission. I can understand why it’s hard to look at the big picture at this moment. Look what’s immediately in front of us. Hamas from the south! Hezbollah from the north! Over 100,000 people still displaced because of the situation in the north and the south. Our best soldiers being cut down in the beginning of their lives. Over 130 hostages still held by Hamas for 100 days and yet Israel is being accused of genocide for trying to defend itself and bring back the hostages! A 337% increase in antisemitism over the past year! There is a lot of anxiety, there is a lot of uncertainty and there is a lot of reason for קוצר רוח and yet we have heroes, both men and women, who inspire us by looking beyond the present, beyond what is directly in front of us.
There is a modern day expression for this philosophy of overcoming קוצר רוח by focusing on the big picture. In his sefer Orot, Rav Kook explains that the very nature of the Jewish nation is to have a long history with a long process that moves ever so slowly and in a letter to his son, he writes that the Jew’s fear dissipates when he has faith in our נצחיות or eternity. Based on these two teachings, Rav Yehoshua Weitzman, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Maalot Yaakov and prominent scholar of Torat Eretz Yisrael, coined the phrase, עם הנצח לא מפחד מדרך ארוכה. An eternal nation is not afraid of the long road. An עם הנצח does not have קוצר רוח.
I’m sure that many of our inspiring brothers and sisters in Israel have chosen to be positive as a coping mechanism, but when you hear people speak like Miriam Peretz and Hadar Lowenstern and so many others who have suffered, you can tell that they are not people who are being positive as a coping mechanism. They have a deep-seated faith in the destiny of our people. They understand the big picture. They understand the long road in our national history. They do not suffer from קוצר רוח or עבודה קשה. They have made time in their life to really delve into their purpose on this earth and they have decided to live their lives focusing on their mission – to celebrate life, to do good in this world, to make a difference, to enjoy and spend time with their family.
We can get caught up so much in our lives with annoying and frustrating nonsense because we may not spend enough time refocusing and reframing what’s truly important. If we carve out time from our עבודה קשה to refocus and reframe then we can emulate the parents of the two murdered children in Ofakim who wanted to sanctify the place where their children were killed with a hachnasat Sefer Torah and singing and dancing. I think about these inspiring individuals who demonstrate true active faith and perseverance during this time and I think about the opportunity I have to daven each and every day and to use that space and perhaps other spaces during the day to carve out time to focus and refocus as to what the big picture is so that I don’t suffer from קוצר רוח. When I use the Peloton a few times per week I sometimes play that song four or five times in a row and I exercise to it because I need that inspiration. I need to cry אחינו, but I also need to sing עם הנצח. It is important for each one of us to learn from these heroes who have been working on their faith day in and day out either in tefilla or during other private moments, because their approach to life simply transcends humanity. Yes, their approach to life does transcend humanity, but then again, our nation transcends humanity, and if each one of us truly carves out time to strengthen our belief as being an עם הנצח, an eternal nation, then we too can lives of no fear from a דרך ארוכה, from a long road.