Why the Greatest Jewish Generation Forgives God
7 mins read

Why the Greatest Jewish Generation Forgives God

Kaneb0

For almost a thousand years, at the great universities of Europe, the defense of a doctoral thesis was a grueling ordeal – filled with anxiety, rigorous questioning and, often, disappointment.

Thankfully, today’s process is completely different. The really hard work – the meticulous research, the rewrites and the countless exchanges back and forth – happens long before the defense. When the defense occurs, it is largely ceremonial, a celebration of what has already been achieved through years of diligent preparation.

I’d like to suggest that this past holiday season was something like a modern thesis defense – a ceremonial occasion, or, dare I say, a victory lap. It marks the culmination of a year that we have already spent under extraordinary circumstances defending a simple but powerful thesis: that we, the Jewish people, are great!

A year ago Simchat Torah massacre and 3,330 years after Sinai we had more men putting on tefillin this morning and women going to mikveh last night – than King David or Rabbi Akiva could ever imagine.

During the recent holidays, there were more Jews in synagogues listening to the shofar, fasting, shaking their lulavim, singing and rejoicing in the Torah than ever before in Jewish history.

Orthodox Jews participate in a musical prayer service where they walk around the synagogue carrying an etrog, a large citrus fruit and a lulav. (credit: MICHAEL GILADI/FLASH90)

Let me be very honest as I dig deep into my thesis.

While we spent Yom Kippur seeking atonement for our sins, as a people, we have nothing more to atone for to God for what we have not already atone for this year!

The precious 1,700 civilians, soldiers, men, women and infants who lost their lives in this war is atonement enough. Not to mention the merit of the brave men and women of the IDF who are literally standing guard today, engaged in battle right now, fighting the same war we have been fighting since Amalek attacked us when we left Egypt 3,300 years ago.

Instead of reciting the nearly 100,000 words of the Yom Kippur machzor, it should not have been enough to say the name of any of the heroes who were killed or perhaps just one of the names of any of the the hostages held by Hamas? Case closed! Reconciliation achieved?

This country is filled with people who actively chose to make this country their home in order to take an active role in building a Jewish state. I think the real difference between a Jew and a Zionist is that a Zionist does the physical well-being of the Jewish people and expresses his own personal responsibility.

Stay up to date with the latest news!

Subscribe to The Jerusalem Post newsletter

Some people like to eat salami and eggs for breakfast. This meal requires both a chicken and a cow. The chicken is involved, the cow is involved. We Zionists are the ones who come here to create children and grandchildren while building both generations and homes.

The people of Israel have clearly demonstrated this year that we are the greatest generation of Jews EVER. And before you start complaining to me about the maid on Mount Sinai who saw more than the prophet Ezekiel, let me remind you that her entire generation died in the desert and did not enter the promised land. And yet we are the ones who live in Eretz Yisrael!

And if you want to tell me about the generation of Tannaim (the great sages) in the Mishna, you may not realize that there were only about 120 Tannaim and they were spread over five different generations. Gemara’s ammorai? Probably only 1,000-2,000 of them, also over five generations. This year alone, there are 10,000 students studying in the Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem!

Yes, other generations had more brilliant individual lights, but our generation has lit up an entire globe!

Our thesis to God

So, this is our thesis to God: We have been abundantly faithful to you and our covenant. You let us be made into lampshades, and instead of assimilating and abandoning the covenant, we dug into our Jewish identity. We turned around and created a Jewish state. Can you understand that? “One Kingdom Only”!

Did you know that 2/3 of the IDF in 1948 were Holocaust survivors?

You let our sons and daughters, mothers and fathers be burned alive, raped, beheaded and captured; and a year later 50,000 of us went to the Western Wall and asked YOU to forgive US! You showed us hester panim, a concealment of the divine face, and we showed you extraordinary resilience, renewal and faith! You turned away and we leaned in!

This is who we are; we are superstars, “as many as the stars in the sky”!

We are sons and daughters of kings and queens, holy converts and righteous saints. We are descendants of letters, brave women, warriors, scholars and heroes.

The blood of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob, Rachel and Leah flows through our veins.

As we walk among ourselves now, do we have real Kohanim and Levites? Do you realize that only 48 generations separate them from their fathers who served in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem?

The Jewish population of the world is just a rounding error in the Chinese census – we are 0.2% of the world and have won 22% of the Nobel Prize. It is our stubborn refusal as Jews to accept the world as it is that has forced us to try to change it and thus win more than 210 of these awards.

Now that the holidays are over, our job is to remind ourselves how remarkable and truly incredible we really are. I think at the beginning of this war some of us forgot ourselves. At the beginning of this war, many of us sinned. Not against God, but sinned against ourselves when we lost ourselves and began to question the Zionist enterprise.

It is also a time to continue our whole relationship with God. Just because we don’t bounce from holiday to ritual back to holiday anymore, doesn’t mean we’ve finished the work that needs to be done.

It reminds me of the famous legend of the Jews who puts God on trial in Auschwitz for his abandonment of the Jewish people. After spending the whole day deliberating, God was found guilty! At which point someone reminded everyone that it was getting late and it was time to make mincha. So, finding God guilty of abandoning the Jewish people, they struck their wooden barracks and began reciting the Hebrew words that begin the prayer, “Ashrei yoshvei veysecha, od yehalelucha seleh,” “Happy are those who dwell in your house, for they shall praise you more and more.”

In the ancient past we sinned against God, and God, out of love for us, did not reject us but forgave us. This year we forgive God because we too love him too much to end this story.

‘Ani L’Dodi V’Dodi Li’ – I am to my beloved as my beloved is to me… ■

The author holds a doctorate in Jewish philosophy and teaches yeshivot and post-secondary midrashot in Jerusalem.



Website https://carnevalestoricocivitonico.it

Related Posts