Parashat HaShavua - Tazria-Metzora/Yom Ha Atzmaut
דַּבֵּ֞ר אֶל־בְּנֵ֤י יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ לֵאמֹ֔ר אִשָּׁה֙ כִּ֣י תַזְרִ֔יעַ וְיָלְדָ֖ה זָכָ֑ר וְטָֽמְאָה֙ שִׁבְעַ֣ת יָמִ֔ים כִּימֵ֛י נִדַּ֥ת דְּותָ֖הּ תִּטְמָֽא׃
Speak to the Israelite people thus: When a woman at childbirth bears a male, she shall be impure seven days; she shall be impure as at the time of her condition of menstrual separation. (Leviticus 12:2)
This week, I attended the Yom Hazikaron assembly in the high school and listened to Shai Bernstein (brother-in-law of Eli Elefant and uncle of Eitan, Elan, and Liam Elefant) speak about his service in Gaza. Upon hearing the news on October 7th he immediately left his home in Riverdale and got onto a flight to join his unit. He had to connect through London and when the British Airways flight attendant learned of his final destination, the attendant expressed surprise, saying something along the lines of “aren’t you scared?” and “how can you leave your family to do this?” To which Shai replied without even thinking, “this is much bigger than me, my fear and even my family. This is about my people and our ability to live safely in our homeland.”
Shai told us that before he left, he made two videos for his family. One they watched as he was on the plane. The other was kept separate — it was a goodbye video to be shown if he died in combat. He also shared words from the eulogy that his friend’s wife had delivered after he was killed in combat, saying to her children, “just like the other most important things in life, things like emunah (faith) and ahava (love), Abba is still there for you even though you can’t see or feel him in same way as before.” I was humbled by his courage and how he modeled ahavat yisrael to our students.
It was less than 24 hours later that I attended another assembly and this time, those same high school students were jumping up and down with glee as 613 sang the Israeli hit song:
ה' יתברך תמיד אוהב אותי ותמיד יהיה לי רק טוב
God loves me and brings me only good things.
It would be easy to see our joy on Yom Haatzmaut as incongruous with the realities of Israel at this moment and the sacrifices that so many are making on its behalf. But the Jewish calendar places these two civil holy days cheek by jowl for a reason.
I believe that Shai and so many others like him actually depend on our Yom Ha’atzmaut happiness. When this week’s parasha opens, a new mother is described this way: “when a seed is planted and sprouts…” The language of pregnancy and birth is replaced by the image of a planted seed. Our Yom Ha’atzmaut celebrations are not only a fun day for our students. Hopefully, they are also one of the many ways that we work to plant seeds that may ultimately grow into the kind of dedication to Israel and the Jewish people that I heard expressed so eloquently on Yom Hazikaron.
