Yavneh Academy students dropped off a beautiful basket at my house last Friday filled with goodies and letters from their students. Some of the letters were addressed to my son Elisha who is presently serving in the IDF, telling him that they are thinking about him and davening for him, and others were addressed to my family, wishing us well, knowing we have a son who is serving.
Our son Elisha did not attend Yavneh. He graduated from Moriah, where I am the head of school. Yet to these Yavneh students, that did not matter. Any fellow Jew serving the Jewish people through army service was a person that these young boys and girls wanted to support. The gifts and letters were a thoughtful and touching token that represented the values and care for klal Yisrael that these children are being taught at Yavneh Academy. We have received similar packages from SINAI students, Yachad students, our local shul and other anonymous groups.
A day earlier, my father, who lives in Israel but is in the U.S. for a family simcha, was on the phone with a Satmar caterer who is catering one component of the simcha. My father, in a pretty characteristic fashion, engaged the caterer in conversation, and somehow, the fact that his grandson was serving in the army came up. The Satmar woman, coming from a community that views itself as philosophically anti-Zionist, asked for his name. My father expressed surprise at this request, whereupon the woman responded that she has a whole list of soldiers for whom she recites Tehillim on a regular basis. After all, they are Yiddish kinder (Jewish children) so how can she not daven for them?
This story is similar to another story I just heard, about a young soldier who was given a short respite from serving in Gaza, and stopped in a store in Me’ah Shearim while still wearing his IDF uniform, to get food on his way home. A chasidish man in the store approached the cashier and told him that he wanted to pay for this soldier’s food. The cashier rejected his money. “I was not going to charge him anyway so there is no need for you to pay.”
These few representative stories describe a feeling of unity, responsibility and care that Jews have been showing each other in recent months as the war in Gaza rages. The question that everyone continues to ask, however, with no simple answer, is: How do we ensure that these feelings of achdut continue even after the war is over and the IDF has completed their mission?
In this week’s parsha, Yaakov calls his children together at the end of his life to bless them. He says, “He’asfu ve’agida lachem, et asher yikra etchem be’acharit hayomim.” “Gather together and I will tell you what will happen to you at the end of days.” One of the tensions in this verse surrounds the fact that we don’t believe that humans are supposed to be given shortcuts deriving from knowledge of what lies ahead. Many commentaries resolve this tension by explaining that Yaakov’s intention was not to tell his children their future, but to help them understand the traits, characteristics and philosophies that would help them write a productive and beneficial tomorrow. One of these hints was delivered by Yaakov in this line of introduction. The word “he’asfu” shows us that only when you gather together will you be successful in fulfilling all your national aspirations for the Jewish people. Gathering together was critical, but as we see in the pasuk, so was Yaakov articulating the need for them to gather together so he could teach them this lesson.
We live in a voyeuristic world where fights, ugly politics and controversy are amplified because people find them exciting and titillating. The only way we can combat this trend is to prioritize unity, celebrate those who prioritize unity, and continue to preach the importance of unity. If we are to take this value seriously, however, it will mean, at times, that other values or priorities must be sacrificed for the sake of unity. It is all too easy to preach unity when one’s definition of unity is that everyone will begin to see and follow my approach.
Google “Meah She’arim” and “soldier.” You will find story after story of fights, animosity and controversy. If we begin to tell stories like the story above and prioritize those stories, then maybe we can actually change the narrative and the focus, and internet searches will provide us with more positive and uplifting stories about the unity of the Jewish people. If we celebrate the important work that our schools are doing in educating the next generation, like the story above about the important work that Yavneh Academy is doing, instead of focusing on and amplifying the negative or scandalous stories in the Jewish community, then maybe those values will begin to become even more of a priority and more generally the norm.
We find ourselves at a difficult, but also momentous time in Jewish history. If we can learn the important lessons of this time, hold onto them, and improve upon ourselves as a united community, we can undoubtedly have a lasting, positive impact on the future of our people.
Rabbi Daniel Alter is head of school at The Moriah School in Englewood. The Moriah School is one of the nation’s premier Jewish day schools, educating over 600 students from across Bergen County. For more information, visit www.moriahschool.org.
