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Kehilath Jeshurun Bulletin Volume Lxxxviii, Number 1 September 5, 2018 | 25 Elul 5778

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Kehilath Jeshurun Bulletin Volume Lxxxviii, Number 1 September 5, 2018 | 25 Elul 5778 HIGH HOLY DAY ISSUE KEHILATH JESHURUN BULLETIN VOLUME LXXXVIII, NUMBER 1 SEPTEMBER 5, 2018 | 25 ELUL 5778 New Jews With an Old Song BY RABBI CHAIM STEINMETZ NLY IN ISRAEL COULD THERE BE AN ORGANIZATION LIKE KOOLULAM. IT ODESCRIBES ITSELF AS A “SOCIAL-MUSICAL INITIATIVE AIMED AT BRINGING TOGETHER PEOPLE FROM ALL CORNERS OF THE DIVERSE, MULTI-CULTURAL ISRAELI SOCIETY. OUR IDEA IS TO STOP EVERYTHING FOR A FEW HOURS AND JUST SING – TOGETHER...” THEIR PERFORMANCES FEATURE A DIVERSE GROUP OF ISRAELIS from every ideology and religious “Alive, alive, alive - Yes, I’m still alive! background. Hundreds of people This is the song which grandfather volunteer to sing together, precisely Sang yesterday to father because they know they are different And today I [sing] IN THIS ISSUE from each other, yet at the same time, I’m still alive, alive, alive very much the same. The people of Israel live” SERMON BY RABBI STEINMETZ 1 The video of this sing along was highlighted in Jewish media across the world. But the media accounts left out SERMON BY RABBI WEINSTOCK 4 a significant point: “Chai” was actually composed in response to the Holocaust. SIMCHAT TORAH CHATANIM 6 It was written by Ehud Manor, the famed For Yom HaShoah, Koolulam produced Israeli composer, to be performed by the COMMUNITY NEWS 8 a unique sing along. Partnering with Beit Israeli entrant in the 1983 Eurovision Avi Chai and Zikaron BaSalon, a group contest in Munich, Germany. Manor UPCOMING EVENTS 13 of 600 Holocaust survivors and their wanted to declare, before the German families sang Ofra Hazah’s hit song nation and the entire world, that we, the “Chai”1, which has the following chorus: Jewish people, were still alive. When the CLASSES 18 song was performed, the backup singers all wore yellow, the color of the hated ..חי, חי ,חי yellow star. Manor recounts how he was כן, אני עוד חי. THINGS TO KNOW 20 emotionally overwhelmed when the זה השיר שסבא singers sang the words “Am Yisrael שר אתמול לאבא BNEI MITZVAH 23 .Chai” on the German stage והיום אני. WITHIN OUR FAMILY 25 The very existence of this song forces אני עוד חי ,חי ,חי, us to wrestle with a mystery: How is it עם ישראל חי.… HOLIDAYS 30 that “Am Yisrael Chai?” How did the weaklings of exile find their way to FALL SHABBAT CALENDAR 32 redemption after 1,900 years? What 1 You can watch it on youtube at continued on page 2 youtu.be/Vuh1-jDi7Qw 2 continued, NEW JEWS WITH AN OLD SONG KEHILATH JESHURUN BULLETIN happened 70 years ago was unparalleled; prayers in the face of their executioners. never to forget Jerusalem: a wandering people rebuilt their state But now… let us once more become after 1,900 years in exile, and a people deep-chested, sturdy, sharp-eyed men.4 “If I forget you, O Jerusalem, that had sustained a Holocaust found May my right hand forget her skill. the strength and courage to defeat For some, New Jew theory was an May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth powerful adversaries with far larger attack on established religious and If I do not remember you, armies. And now, 38 years later, a group communal norms; and it was seen this way If I do not exalt Jerusalem of Israelis were returning to Germany by many in the Orthodox community. Above my chief joy.” and proudly singing “Am Yisrael Chai.” Remarkably enough, this theory was adopted by Rabbi Avraham Isaac Kook. How did this happen? In a highly controversial passage, he wrote that exercise for the sake of This question was actually posed well making one stronger to build the land before the State was established, by the of Israel was so holy, that when young founders of the Zionist movement. They people engage in sport to strengthen the wondered how the Jew of exile would power and spirit for the sake of the might ever manage to build an independent of the entire nation, that holy service state. To this, they offered two answers: raises God’s Presence higher and higher, What makes these words exceptionally a “New Jew,” and an old song. equal to (reciting) the songs and praises powerful is their context. This chapter that David, King of Israel, expressed in comes right after 16 straight chapters The New Jew answer is actually an old the book of Psalms.5 To Rav Kook, a of Psalms that were recited in the one. According the medieval thinkers secular soldier’s pushups are equal to a Temple service. When read in context, Avraham ibn Ezra2 and Maimonides3, pious man’s prayers. it is apparent that Psalm 137 comes the generation that left Egypt was not to respond to a worry: perhaps these capable of entering Israel because their But many felt that the heart and soul previous mentioned songs of the character was weak; only their children, of Zionism came from an “old song,” a Temple will be reduced to nostalgia, challenged daily by the desolation dogged refusal by Jews to ever forget sentimental tokens of a forgotten past. of the desert, would be courageous their spiritual home, the land of Israel. That is why Psalm 137 is placed exactly enough to conquer Israel. After the In 1902, the founding manifesto of the where it is, to proclaim loudly from the exodus, the Jews still needed to wait religious Zionist Mizrachi movement first moments of exile that the Temple BUT MANY FELT THAT THE HEART AND SOUL OF ZIONISM CAME FROM AN “OLD SONG,” A DOGGED REFUSAL BY JEWS TO EVER FORGET THEIR SPIRITUAL HOME, THE LAND OF ISRAEL. for a new generation of leaders before declared: We have always been united by Psalms are not going to be a relic of the entering the land of Israel. that ancient hope, by the promise which past, but rather a blueprint for the future. lies at the very roots of our religion, namely, Jews vowed they would eventually Early Zionist thinkers also saw the need that only out of Zion will the Lord bring return to Jerusalem and sing the songs for a “New Jew.” Max Nordau, in a 1903 redemption to the people of Israel.6 of the Temple once again. “If I forget letter, said that his motto was: We must you O Jerusalem” is “the song which think of creating once again a Jewry of This hope is expressed most powerfully grandfather sang yesterday to father,” muscles.” He explained that “the fear of in an old song, Psalm 137. In it, those the song which declared that Israel is constant persecution… turned our exiled to Babylonia in 586 B.C.E. vow not just part of the Jewish past, but powerful voices into frightened whispers, also the Jewish future. 4 “Jewry of Muscle”, Max Nordau in The Jew in which rose in crescendo only when our the Modern World, Paul R. Mendes-Flohr, Jehuda martyrs on the stakes cried out their dying Reinharz, pages 547-548 This old song, composed on the 5 Orot HaTechiyah 34 river banks of Babylon, gave us hope 2 Exodus 14:13 6 The Jew in the Modern World, page 549 throughout exile. Eliezer Ayalon (Lazar 3 Guide for the Perplexed 3:32 3 KEHILATH JESHURUN BULLETIN Hirschenfeis) was a Holocaust survivor to the Krakow market, and noticed ushered the remaining girls by and the whose entire family perished in Treblinka. someone selling “Jew Dolls,” crude Torah made it out. He came to Israel in 1945, and fought caricatures of Hasidic Jews studying in the War of Independence (as did from a book. They took a closer look The belt broke!! And the Torah was carried thousands of other survivors). In an at the “books” the dolls were holding, by these courageous teenage girls back interview in 20087, Ayalon recalled, The and realized they had been cut out of to Israel. Gordis then wonders how the love of this country that was imbued in a Sefer Torah. So they asked the seller girls knew to do this: me by my parents from early childhood where these parchment fragments made me decide that I am going to Eretz came from, and he explained that his How did they know that this Torah simply Yisrael. And this powerful love of Israel uncle had taken the Torah scroll after had to come home? Why, in a world in changed his destiny. He concludes the the war from a synagogue in Luminova. which last year’s news is ancient history, interview by saying: Here I am right now, Immediately, they began negotiations did they know that the story of the Jews I have two married children, five grand- to buy what remained of the Torah, and of Leminova, whoever they were, is their children and one great-grandson. Three the girls pooled their pocket money story, too? generations born and raised from the ashes of the Holocaust. Today I am the happiest man in the world. Such is the power of an old song. THE MIRACLE THAT OCCURRED 70 YEARS AGO WAS Clearly, both answers were correct. The THE PRODUCT OF NEW JEWS SINGING AN OLD SONG. miracle that occurred 70 years ago was the product of new Jews singing an old song. It took the courage and daring of a new generation combined with the to buy the damaged Torah scroll. But How did they know? The answer is: hopes of 2,000 years to bring us back then they had a dilemma: what should because they are new Jews, but singing to our homeland.
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