Shabbat – Saturday, July 13
For Shabbat lunch I had an invitation to the home of Yael and Michael Berger. Yael and my wife, Sarah, met at Hebrew University ulpan (Hebrew language school) in the summer of 2005. Yael suggested that I go to Nitzanim for Shabbat morning prayer.
The interior of Nitzanim (source: internet)
The rabbi gave a fascinating dvar Torah (sermon). He began by quoting a verse from the parasha (Numbers 21:34), “But Hashem said to Moses, ‘Do not fear him [King Og of Bashan], for into your hand I give him and all his people and his land.’” What does it mean, “Into your hand I give him?” The rabbi engaged the congregation in Torah trivia, asking for congregants to quote from memory the biblical references to Moses’s hands. Significantly, one verse mentioned that Moses’s hands are also used to carry the tablets down from Mount Sinai (Exodus 32:15). The rabbi concluded that from Moses we learn to use our hands from two purposes. Based on the initial verse in Numbers, we learn to take up weapons, defend ourselves, to engage militarily. And from the Exodus verse, we learn to engage with Torah.
Fortunately, David Bernstein, the Dean Emeritus of Pardes whom I was planning to meet that evening, was also at Nitzanim. We spoke afterwards and he explained that it was a very political drash. Political? Yes. The Rabbi need not say it explicitly, but everyone here knows he’s arguing for conscription of Haredim (for background on this issue read The Haredi Exemption). Though the Religious Zionists and Haredi are both in the ruling coalition, they are divided on this issue (Religious Zionists support conscription).
David further explained that the religious community around Nitzanim has paid a high price: about a dozen kids have died in the current war or been seriously injured (lost an eye, lost both legs, etc.).
Lunch at the Bergers was wonderful. As I arrived, a resident of their complex was hosting a gathering to celebrate the birth of their daughter, Ahava. At the lunch itself, the guests reflected the Zionist dream of the ingathering of the Jews. Yael is from Australia, Michael from Los Angeles. Lily is Bukharian (born in Russia / USSR) and grew up in Atlanta. Alex (a woman) and Michael (who serves in a combat unit) are from Paris. The conversation moved between the war and politics, Israeli and American, Torah and life.
A special Shabbat in Jerusalem.