ערב שבת שובה, תשע"ג
My uncle is back from the dead. Literally.
Three weeks ago, he was in a car accident. He may have had a heart attack behind the wheel. He had to be resuscitated, and was flown by air ambulance to hospital. That was on a Thursday. The following Monday, he shocked the nurses by being able to point to his ankle to show that it hurt, which caused the medical staff to discover two more fractures, in addition to his femur and several ribs. Tuesday, he asked his son to help him lay tefillin.
Almost two weeks after the accident, he suffered massive cardiac arrest. The nurses said their goodbyes, and the next day I reached my cousin by phone, to try to give some long distance comfort. But, my cousin DY surprised me, saying "We have had a miracle here!" I thought maybe he was kidding himself, but he put me on speaker to talk to my uncle, who then signed that we should continue to daven. Last Friday, my mother told me that her brother called her on the phone. BEH next week, my mum, her brother and my grandmother will fly to the US to see US (Uncle S*).
Baruch Mehaye haMeitim.
He now has two dates on which to say Hallel for his personal tehiyat hameitim.
And no one is stupid enough to say, "Well, he shouldn't have had heart trouble in the first place, so there is nothing to thank HaShem for."
and no one is stupid enough to say, "Well, his heart problems were probably his fault, and he did something wrong, and if he had just been a better person or a better Jew, there would have been no setbacks, so there is nothing to thank HaShem for."
No. All of us are thanking HaShem for these miracles. When I said Shehehiyanu on Rosh HaShana, all I could think about was how he IS alive, ה' החייה אותו, and how wonderful that is.
And his health is gradually returning, and even if there may be more setbacks, BH, the direction is positive, and every day that Uncle S can communicate with his family, is a miracle for which we say Thanks.
In a parallel universe, the Jewish peopel have come back to life.
There were centuries of pogroms, attacks, crusades, blood libels. And then there was the Holocaust. Fully one-third of world Jewry was annihilated.
And three years later, the 600,000 Jews in Eretz Yisrael declared a sovereign Jewish nation, with Shabbat as the only day off each week, and Yerushalaim as our capital city.
Immediately, millions of well-equipped Arab armies attacked the fledgling country. They took most of Yerushalaim, including our heart - Har HaBayit. People said goodbye.
Over the following 19 years, the tiny Jewish State, with indefensible borders, grew stronger. There were setbacks, but there were also developments. Cities, Yeshivot, Aliya and even a Nobel Prize (Sh"I Agnon, a religious Zionist).
And then, in Iyar 5727, it seemed that all was lost. The Israeli government was preparing mass graves for the attack in which Nasser (yemah shemo) was planning to throw us all into the sea. Jews world over knew that if we lost this one, the Holocaust would pale by comparison.
On the 26th of Iyar, Israel staged a pre-emptive attack in Egypt, destroying the entire Egyptian Air force. Whiel the government knew they had to fight against Egypt and Syria, the intention of the human leaders was to keep the peace with Jordan. רבות מחשבות בלב איש. Israel offered Jordan to not join the war, Jordan refused the offer, and within two days, We had regained control of Har HaBayit.
We have two dates to say Hallel for our national Tehiyat haMeitim.
(Years ago, i stumbled across the Cleveland newspapers from June 6th and June 11th that Uncle S had saved when he was in Telz, announcing the beginning and end of the Six-Day miracle.)
Over the past 45 years, things have not been stable. There have been terror attacks, and the Waqf has had too much control over Har HaBayit. So much control, that in its efforts to keep the peace with Jordan (and with Israeli Arabs) , The Israeli police refused entry to any part of Har HaBayit (*) to "religious provocateurs", including Rav Yisrael Ariel, who was the soldier who kept guard of what may be Even haShetiya during the Six-Day War.
Setbacks, there are lots of setbacks.
But this week, the police invited Rav Ariel to their headquarters, where they told him not only that he may return to going up to Har haBayit, but they now allow tefillot yahid on Har Habayit.
Do we realize what this means?
Do we realize how much closer we are getting, every day, sometimes even as a result of these setbacks, to HaShem's final redemption?
In today's BeSheva newspaper, there is an article explaining that it is assur to daven minha on the side of the highway. Now, on the one had, it is a special sight, seeing all over Eretz Yisrael, people who have stopped their cars to daven.
On the other hand, the Mishna clearly states that one does NOT stop to daven in a Makom shel sakana. For this, there are tashlumim.
We are slowly returning to the Real Torah, the Torah that is not just rituals and "looking Jewish in a non-Jewish world." We are returning to Torat haHaim, the Torah that addresses real-life issues, even when it might "look less religious", but is truly what will make us a Light Among the Nations - a moral, just, life-respecting Nation, according to Torah. A nation that everyone can learn from, so that, gradually in our days,
ויאמר כל אשר נשמה באפו, ה' אלוקי ישראל מלך ומלכותו בכל משלה.
Notes:
1. for tefillot, my uncle's name is Shmuel Yaacov ben Sara Golda
2. While there are areas on Har HaBayit which one absolutely may not enter, there are areas which, according to all opinions, may be entered after going to the mikva properly.
There are also areas (such as south of shaar hamugrabim) which are not halachically Har HaBayit, but that is not what concerns us right now.
גמר חתימה טובה
לשנה הזאת בירושלים הבנויה!!
