This Shabbat marks the first in the Hebrew month of Iyyar which means Yom HaZikaron (Israel’s Memorial Day) and Yom Ha’atzmaut (Israel Independence Day) will be commemorated and celebrated next Monday and Tuesday.
These will be the most muted and challenging observances of these days in Israel’s 76- year history. The war continues on three fronts: Gaza, the north, and on college campuses across the Diaspora. On Sunday night and Monday, all Israel – our community of course included – will mourn those killed in acts of terror and war from soldiers who have fallen in the line of duty to those who were slaughtered while dancing at the Nova Music Festival.
The transition from memory and sorrow to celebration has always been a challenging one on these two days. The signal to make the switch has always been the moment when the flag is raised from half mast to full at Har Herzl as Yom HaZikaron slips away and the raucous fireworks and celebration of Independence Day begins. This year it feels nearly impossible. How can we think about celebrating when all of our hostages still haven’t returned home? When our soldiers continue to face danger? When it feels like Israel is more isolated than ever before?
In moments like this I look to the past for guidance. Earlier this week we commemorated Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. Eva Nathanson joined us to share her story of survival. I find hope and encouragement knowing that in the darkness of those days, her family refused to give up, making sacrifice after sacrifice to save her so that she might survive, so that she might live to tell her story. I’m also reminded that even in those terrible days, we were not completely alone. Good people risked their lives so that Eva could live.
On this Yom HaZikaron, let us weep for the fallen, for the lives cut short. Let us remember their stories of bravery and sacrifice. Let us be inspired by their example to never lose hope, never to give up on the dream of more than three thousand years: to be a free people in our own land.
It won’t be the usual raucous celebration with fireworks but it can and should be a time to give thanks for what we have built, for the strength and courage of our everyday heroes, and for the extraordinary resilience that is seemingly hardwired into our Jewish DNA.
Even now, perhaps especially now, Am Yisrael Chai, the Jewish People lives and endures!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback
PS – I hope you’ll join us for communal observance of these special days as part of a greater Los Angeles coalition co-sponsored by Wise and hosted at either Valley Beth Shalom or Temple Beth Am.