This Friday night, on Homecoming Shabbat, we kick off our 60th anniversary celebration. Each day this week, a member of our our clergy shares some personal Stephen Wise Temple Moments.
The Talmud recounts the tale of four sages, Rabban Gamliel, Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah, Rabbi Joshua, and Rabbi Akiba, who visit the Temple mount in Jerusalem to bear witness to its desolation. Upon their arrival, they began to weep, except for Akiba, who laughed. When the sages ask how Akiba could laugh at such destruction, he tells them: Since the destruction promised by the prophets came true, so, too, may the hopes promised by the prophets come true (BT Makkot 24B).
Perhaps my most vivid and most cherished memory of Wise comes not from the mountaintop itself, but from the Elharizi Elementary School in Tel Aviv, where our Wise School Grade 6 students visited for several years. Each visit took place during Yom HaZikaron and Yom Ha’Atzmaut, so that the students could experience these meaningful days in Israel, and our Yom HaZikaron observance always included a memorial service at the Elharizi school, which honored every fallen soldier that grew up there.
One year, two of our students began to sob uncontrollably during the memorial ceremony. Though they couldn’t understand the words of the ceremony, they understood its meaning and lamented that their newfound friends grew up knowing they may have to give their lives in defense of their nation. The next day, the students remained somber until the onset of Yom Ha’Atzmaut, when they fully embraced the release of the nation’s celebration of independence.
Today, I remain filled with admiration for that pair of 12-year-olds, now 19, who recognized the monumental burden carried by warriors and their families, as well as the implications of that burden upon Israeli society in general. I also remain filled with gratitude that, in that moment, their commemoration ultimately gave way to celebration. This year’s Yom HaZikaron and Yom Ha’Atzmaut will look different than any I’ve commemorated alongside Wise before, but as Akiba suggests, just as our greatest fears may be realized, so, too, may our greatest hopes, and we must work toward securing those hopes — for this community, for Israel, and for our people.
— Rabbi Josh Knobel