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| Bat-Galim Shaer, Iris Yifrach and Racheli Fraenkel with Mayor Nir Birkat (TOI) |
One year ago today, I6 Sivan 5774 on the Hebrew Calendar, Eyal
Yifrach, Naftali Fraenkel, and Gilad Shaar, HY’D were kidnapped and murdered by
Hamas terrorists. The
entirety of world Jewry had united in solidarity with the parents of those three
teenagers. It didn’t matter what Hashkafa one had.
There was a feeling of pure Achdus. Unity. We were not Charedi,
Modern Orthodox (MO), Dati, Religious Zionist or secular. We were not
Orthodox, Conservative or Reform. We were the Jewish people - feeling the pain
of our brothers and sisters in Israel. It was a moment in time of pure magic. A time where our differences were forgotten or
ignored as irrelevant.
There were gatherings of solidarity and prayer all over the
world attended by Jews from all walks of life. No where was this better demonstrated
than a rally that took place at Tel Aviv’s Kikar Rabin on June 29th before it had become known that
the 3 boys were killed. Rabbi Dovid Landesman described the event:
Some eighty thousand people, religious and secular, mesorati and chiloni, gathered to listen – not to protest or to demonstrate – but to stand together as a unified nation sharing a common prayer – bring the boys back home.
That rally was sponsored by Los Angeles philanthropist
Shlomo Yehuda Rechnitz, a Charedi Jew. There was no Tehilim. And only one
speaker, Israeli President Ruby Rivlin, a non Orthodox Jew.
Few people suffering a tragedy like this were as eloquent
as Rachel Fraenkel the mother of Naftali. She spoke at another rally held
earlier at the Kotel. Rabbi Landesman’s description:
Did you hear her words at a rally at the kotel where she told thousands of women that even if God forbid the end of this case is not to our liking, we will believe no less for the Ribbono shel Olam is not in our pocket? Last night she expressed her thanks not only to the government and to Tzahal, but also to Abu Mazen – the head of the Palestinian authority – and to the mayor of Chevron for their courage in condemning the kidnappings.
It did not take long for that sense of unity to dissipate.
Once the funeral of those boys was over, we all went ‘home’ to our own
Hashkafic worlds. Hashkafos that tend to create divisions, not unity.
Now no one promotes their Hashkafos more than I do. I am a
firm believer that my Hashkafos more closely approach God’s will for us than other Hashkafos do. But that should not
be a dividing factor between us. It should not only be at tragedies that we unite. As
was the case here.We ought to be able to unite even when things are tranquil and good for us.
It is for this reason that the 3 families that lost those
boys have called for an international day of Jewish unity on this day, the anniversary
of their sons’ death (Yahrzeit). The message
seems to have caught on. From the Times of Israel:
A million individuals throughout Israel and in Jewish communities in 20 different countries are expected to participate in unity-themed gatherings and educational programs. A conference on issues that emerged from the events of the summer of 2014 will take place in Jerusalem, and the first annual Jerusalem Unity Prize will be awarded to individuals and organizations identified as leaders in promoting Jewish unity in Israel or in strengthening Israel-Diaspora ties.
I attended one here in Chicago last night sponsored by the YU Kollel Torah MiTzion. The featured speaker, International Director of
NCSY, Rabbi Micah Greenland* spoke about the reasons that we are so unified
during tragedies and why they are so short lived. And what we can perhaps do to
change that into a permanent unity.
My own inclination as to why we are so unified during times
of tragedy is that we are indeed a united people. We Jews are brothers. When
one of our own suffers tragedies like this, we suffer with them. We genuinely feel
their pain as much as anyone possibly could without actually being them. There
is an empathy we have for a fellow Jew
that suffers no matter what kind of Jew he or she is… or what kind of Jew we
are. He or she is family! We pray for their salvation as though we were praying
for our own. Everything else is forgotten when pain is uppermost in our minds.
Once that tragedy passes, however, we tend to go back into
our own little worlds and concerns. We go from being a community of Jews to
being individuals with own perspectives. Which differ significantly (we think)
from those of others to our right or left. And differences bring criticisms, divisiveness
, and a lack of empathy for ‘the other’.
This is human nature. We tend to want to ‘give of ourselves to
others’ times of tragedy. And tend to not do that when things are good. When things are good we tend to look at our
own concerns and ignore the concerns of those with whom we disagree.
Rabbi Greenland made the following suggestion on how to overcome
that. We need to literally force ourselves to go against our nature to support
and give to those we do not necessarily agree with. For example it is easy to
support a YU Kollel if you are MO and it is easy to support a Lakewood Kollel
if you are Charedi. What we all need to do is support both. Those that are
Charedi should support a YU Kollel too. Those who are MO should also support a
Lakewood Kollel. If we force ourselves to do things like that, unity will come.
The feeling of Achdus present during times of tragedy will eventually
emerge during good times.
The pain and angst about the fate of the 3 Jewish sons felt
by Jewish people last year was palpable. That generated a feeling of Achdus.
Isn’t it time to do something about keeping those feeling going?
This doesn’t mean we have to give up our Hashkafos. It doesn’t
even mean we can’t be critical if we see something that we feel deserves it.
But it should always be done out of a sense of love and acceptance of the
other. Brother to brother. Never out of a sense of hatred and rejection. If we
all did that the Jewish world would be a far better place.
*Full disclosure: Rabbi Greenland is my son in law.
