December 13-14, 2013 / 11 Tevet 5774
Shabbat Vayekhi
Torah - Genesis 47:28-50:26 / Haftarah - I Kings 2:1-12
“Hope”
Dear Friends,
My daughter flew back to Israel
after a brief and wonderful visit over the Hanukkah and Thanksgiving
break. In ten days she will enter the
Israeli army and begin her two years of service. Watching her go through the security check at
the airport, I thought of all the dangers that surround us in our modern and
high-tech world. I said a quiet prayer
for Elana’s safety as she left us and headed out into the world.
What a world we live in –
filled with so much to fear. The 20th
century was the bloodiest on record during which countless millions were
murdered and slaughtered in two world wars and regional and national
conflicts. We live in a world where the
fear of terrorism has reached every corner of the globe. Our high-tech gadgets have brought us
identity theft. The chemicals that brought
us abundant harvests are causing biological problems of all kinds. Our fossil
fuels are causing the earth to warm and climate to change. There is a lot to worry about these days.
Yet, we Jews are not ones to despair. As Edmund Fleg put it in his poem, ‘Why I am
a Jew,’
I am a Jew because in every place where suffering weeps, the Jew
weeps.
I am a Jew because at every time when despair cries out, the Jew
hopes.
We Jews have the uncanny
ability to deal with tragedy and hardship.
We find the strength to move on and make our lives a blessing. Rather than wallow in fear and sadness, we
Jews make the best of things, learn, grow and then renew our lives with hope
and optimism.
In this week’s Torah portion,
Jacob is dying in the land of Egypt. As
he reached the end of his life, things were not going so well. His sons were in no way model citizens and he
was ashamed of their behavior. He and his family were living in Egypt and no
longer in the Land of Israel. There was
every indication that they would stay in Egypt for a long time. As we will soon see, the 400 year enslavement
of the Children of Israel was quickly approaching. There was much to worry about way back
then.
Jacob could have died a
disappointed, broken, and anxious man. But, he chose to see life in the Jewish way
– with hope and expectation that things would eventially get better. Instead of withdrawing, he blessed his sons
and offered every reason to hope for a better future. Hope is the key that we share. In hope is the power to rise above fear and
anxiety. In hope we can look towards a
better tomorrow. In hope we can summon our power and intellect to work towards
a better way to live in harmony, understanding, acceptance, love, and
peace. In hope there is life.
So, in ten days Elana enters
the Israeli army and starts her basic training.
Sometime in January, she will be sworn in and begin her duties. On the day of her induction, the Israeli/Jewish
national anthem will be played. It
should come as no surprise that our Jewish people’s anthem, called Hatikvah in
Hebrew, means… ‘The Hope.’
Shabbat shalom.
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