Seven Decades of Torah Life in the State of Israel 1978–1987 Shua Brick Fellow, YU Israel Kollel Photo by Government Press Office (Israel), CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22807869 “PRISONERS OF ZION” AND THE RESPONSIBILITY OF FREEDOM ust as the origins of modern it to Natan Sharansky. From your local an essential feature of the entire Zionism can be traced back Bnei Akiva chapter, you could buy a movement, drawing new recruits and to the trial of Colonel Alfred plain silver C-shaped band that bore energizing veteran activists.” Dreyfus,J a trial also marks the turn of a name of a “Prisoner of Zion,” which Natan Sharansky, however, is certainly the fourth decade for the modern state she wore for years. It was that personal the most famous refusenik. Perhaps it of Israel. In 1978, Anatoly Borisovich connection to the issue that inspired is due to his high-profile career in the Shcharansky’s sentencing to thirteen her to join the protests of the Student public sector, or for his mesmerizing years of forced labor by the Soviet Struggle for Soviet Jewry (SSSJ), along claim that he kept sane in extended Government inspired protests around with her family and friends. “It was solitary confinement in Soviet prison the globe, culminating in the march what everyone was doing, it was a bit of by playing mental chess games against on Washington D.C. on December a social scene,” she conceded. himself. Yet I think he is famous 6, 1987, when a quarter of a million The bracelet was the brainchild of the because of Avital. people protested in solidarity with SSSJ’s founder, Jacob Birnbaum. He Avital married Natan Sharansky the Soviet Jewry. With these two events as planned to personalize the campaign, bookends, I wish to unpack a lesson day before she used her expiring visa and he transformed the movement to flee the USSR in 1974. Avital began from this period, fundamental to our from “an abstract struggle for ‘Soviet celebration of Yom Ha’Atzmaut. her activism as a newlywed, and made Jewry’ into a concrete struggle for her first trip to America to plead on When I asked my mother for her Soviet Jews, with names and stories,” her husband’s behalf in 1975; but it recollections of that time, she was author and journalist Yossi Klein 1 was only after his trial in 1978 that excited to share that she had Anatoly’s Halevi reported. “Over the years, Natan’s plight received widespread name on her bracelet before he changed the personal campaign became attention. Avital began meeting with 23 Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary • The Benjamin and Rose Berger CJF Torah To-Go Series • Yom Haatzmaut 5778 dignitaries and diplomats, and found land of Egypt” (Shemos 22:20). The and the prisoner on our mind even if her way into the homes and hearts of connection between our time in Egypt they are in a cell across the world. They Jews the world round. and our treatment of others is repeated are strangers, but we know them, for Thirty years after Sharansky’s walk to in Shemot (23:9), Vayikra (19:10), and their story is our story. freedom across the Glienicke Bridge,2 in Devarim (10:19; 23:8; 24:18). This message is integrally woven into their daughter, Rachel Sharansky We are told that “When strangers the fabric of Israeli society. It is no Denziger, explained how indebted she become your neighbors, do not wrong surprise that Israeli support was first feels for the strength the protest gave them. They are your community … on the ground after an earthquake in to her parents, while in turn it was and love each one as yourself, for you Haiti in 2010, that we sent relief to her parents who gave strength to the were strangers in the land of Egypt.” New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, protests. Klein Halevi explained that it This verse is juxtaposed with themes and 140 tons of supplies to Indonesia was “Birnbaum’s vision of a symbiotic in the next verse that we should do and Sri Lanka after the tsunami in relationship … American Jews were righteousness because, again, God took 2004. Going the extra mile, as part of inspired by the courage of Soviet us out of Egypt (Vayikra 19:33-36). their relief teams, Israel dispatches a refuseniks, who in turn were fortified Within the basic vision of God’s giving troupe of medical clowns to fill the by American Jewish support.” the Land of Israel is a prerequisite makeshift medical tents with warmth Why is this story about Diaspora Jews national training in empathy. To feel for when it is most needed. relevant to Israeli history? those who have wandered as we have As we celebrate the founding of the When God signed a pact with Avraham wandered, who have been enslaved State of Israel and commemorate Yom as we have been enslaved, who have Hazikaron, it behooves us to dwell on at the Brit Bein HaBetarim, when the Land of Israel was promised to a not- been persecuted as we have been what made it possible: the sacrifice and yet existing nation, God explained that persecuted. We will recognize their hardship, as well as wounds that are a prerequisite to national autonomy pain as it resonates with our national fresh and still healing. Central to our was to first be strangers in a land that consciousness. We will hate injustice, national narrative is our capacity to is not theirs (Gen. 15:13). To a person because we have been victims of learn compassion and empathy from who does not yet have children, it is an injustice and so we will be a beacon of these experiences, forming a deeper odd selling point to promise that the righteousness from our own soil. It is understanding of the human condition. a fundamental component of our progeny must first be slaves before they brit The Mishna inAvot says that “Ben with God from the . can become masters of their own land. Brit Bein HaBetarim Arba’im L’Binah,” forty is the age of R’ Elazar HaGadol is puzzled as to It is injustice that inspires us, and our wisdom. R’ Ovadiah ben Abraham why the Torah warns us about proper pursuit of justice that helps us earn of Bartenura, as a prooftext, quotes treatment of the “strangers’ among us,” our return, as Yeshayahu exclaimed, Devarim (29:4), that it was not until “Zion is redeemed with justice, after forty years in the desert that God and the Gemara (Baba Metzia 59b) is unsure if the message is repeated 36 and we will return to it through gave the Jewish people a “heart for times or 46 times. Tosafot add that righteousness” (1:27). understanding, eyes to see, and ears to the inclusion of the ten additional That is why it is no coincidence that hear.” Israel’s fourth decade teaches us iterations under dispute are the verses these movements have been inspired to open our ears to listen, our eyes to that tell us the reason behind the by trials, corrupted manifestations of see, and our hearts to feel the plight of sensitivity, and are not a warning in- justice. And it was from the beginning, others. and-of themselves. Meaning, on top at the first SSSJ rally on May Day 1964, of the uniquely repetitive statements that Birnbaum insisted on having Endnotes warning us to treat strangers with love posters declaring “Let My People 1 Klein Halevi, Yossi. “Jacob Birnbaum and and kindness, there is another set of Go!” Egypt, the very first diaspora the Struggle for Soviet Jewry” Azure (17) repetitive verses that reiterate the spirit destination, still informing how we Spring 5764/2004. behind the law. These are verses where advocate for “strangers” who are our 2 Sharansky Danziger, Rachel “30 Years Hashem tells us to treat the Other community, who are the names on our After Glienicke Bridge”Times of Israel Feb. kindly, “for you were strangers in the bracelets, the visitor in our living room, 11, 2016 http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/30- years-after-glienicke-bridge/. 24 Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary • The Benjamin and Rose Berger CJF Torah To-Go Series • Yom Haatzmaut 5778.