Saving a Torah Scroll

 

Every family has their stories, tales that become part of their history.  For me, one of the most important ones was how my uncle rescued a Torah scroll. I cannot say when I first heard this saga, but it became seared on my soul. In turn, it became part of my children’s and grandchildren’s legend.

And what is the story? On November 10, 1938, after spending most of the night hiding with his parents from the Nazi gang rampaging in the village he called home, Fred Katz, then nine-years-old, made his way to his small synagogue in Jesberg Germany. He wanted to find his wimple*. Instead, he found destruction.  Prayer books and shawls had been piled on the floor and a fire had been set which only scorched some of the items before it went out.  Looking through the rubble, he found a Torah Scroll which had been torn apart at a seam but was otherwise undamaged. Returning home he fetched the family’s hand wagon and brought the Torah back with him. A month later he and his parents sailed for America and the Torah scroll came with them, first to Stillwater, Oklahoma and then to Wichita, Kansas where it remains until today.

Fast forward eighty-seven years later. Last night, my Uncle Fred’s great, great nephew, my sixteen-year-old grandson, Yitzhak, was wandering around at his yeshiva high school in Itamar. He was the first to realize a fire, apparently due to an electric malfunction, had started in the study hall. Inspired by Uncle Fred he didn’t hesitate. He simply dashed in and grabbed the Torah scroll from the Ark. Both he and the scroll are fine. Thankfully, no one was hurt, and the other buildings are all fine.

It was a little incident for most but for my family it’s big. We’re proud of Yitzhak and we can’t help thinking that his story happened just two days before Holocaust Day when the world recalls the horrors of the Shoah.

We all know antisemitism has not abated. Nor has the attempt to annihilate all of us. This morning my son returned to his base near Kissufim close to the Gaza border. Uncle Fred and Yitzhak rescued Torah scrolls. Yitzhak’s father, along with all our other precious soldiers, are trying to protect all the Torah scrolls along with the Jewish people and their land. 

It’s our youth like Yitzhak who give them the strength and encouragement to continue in their mission.  May the Almighty bring them success.

*There is a German custom to swaddle a baby boy in a cloth with a Biblical verse embroidered upon it when he is brought to his brit. Afterwards the cloth stays in the Holy Ark.

Broken Hearts

 

As the final preparations to escort Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir Bibas, hy’d, to their eternal rest began, I sat in the Kotel Tunnels sobbing. As if their murders weren’t enough to make me weep, I remembered my Kotel visit fourteen years ago. Then I also cried my heart out thinking about my grandson's nursery school buddy, Elad Fogel. He, his parents, brother, and infant sister, hy’d, were stabbed to death by Arab terrorists while he was sleeping in his bed. The whole country grieved and my three-year-old grandson had to deal with death and hate. There were nightmares and questions, but time moves on, and so did he.

A bereaved father once told his wife that HaShem will comfort us if we let Him. There’s the trick. We need to let Him.  

My children have lost so many of their friends- sickness, war, car accidents, and terror. With each of their losses, another piece of my heart breaks. It's amazing there's any of it left. But there is, and I'm able to see the many miracles HaShem makes for us.

Please, HaShem, don't stop with the miracles. Bring my children’s friend, Avinatan, and all of the hostages home safe and whole. Please!!!

Elad shortly before he was murdered. 

Grief

 Twenty-four years ago, five-month-old Yehuda Shoham was critically injured when the car he was travelling in was attacked by a heavy stone thrown by an Arab terrorist. We - the whole nation- prayed morning, afternoon, evening, and in-between for a miracle to save his life. After eight days Yehuda returned his soul to his Maker and our hearts were broken. What happened to all those prayers? At Yehuda’s shiva his parents insisted they had not been wasted. They told us, the ones trying to comfort them, that all the others in the pediatric ICU where Yehuda had been, were released from the hospital, able to have a healthy life. Their conviction that the prayers said for Yehuda helped those babies and children comforted us. I have not forgotten their words.

Now, after 500 days of praying for Kfir ben Shiri, Ariel ben Shiri, and Shiri bat Marget, I hold on to their words with all my broken heart. May HaShem use our prayers to bring comfort to the Bibas and Lifshitz families and all those who have been bereaved in this horrible war.

Cheap Blood

 On October 15th 2023, nine days into the war then Israeli Energy Minister, Israel Katz, said not a single electricity switch will be flipped on, not a single faucet will be turned on, and not a single fuel truck will enter ( Gaza) until the Israeli hostages are returned home. Obviously, he didn’t follow through with his declaration. Why not? The world tied our hands, maintaining that we had to supply humanitarian aid to the very people who murdered, raped, burned, and kidnapped us. What is the result? Tomorrow, 491 days later, Hamas is releasing dead hostages. Why is Jewish blood so cheap?

Communication

Last week, there was a post on Facebook with the comment: Anyone who dares to disagree with me will be blocked and unfriended. I was horrified. What has happened to dialogue? Do we no longer look for points we can agree on?

Recently, someone I cared about passed away. She was never terribly fond of the religious community. However, as I told her sons, she always treated me with respect. And she could always find something that we both had in common. We could have concentrated on our differences but did not, and now I am left with good memories of a dynamic woman who tried to make the world a better place her way.

Hope

 

Ever since Ohad Ben Ami, Eli Sharabi, and Or Levy were released gaunt and emaciated this past Shabbat many are saying the remaining hostages must be in worse shape and we have to be realistic. I DO NOT WANT TO BE REALISTIC! Last night I heard Ditza Or, Avinatan’s mother, speak at Hostage Square. With yearning she described her vision of her son’s return. She has not given up hope and she is my role model. So I will continue to beg, plead, pray, and hope that Avinatan, along with all the others, will return home already this week and be able to rebuild their lives.    

 

 

Terrorists

 

Friday my husband and I traveled to the Golan. On the way we passed through Beit Shean and remembered the terror attack from November 19, 1974. At that time, we were spending our “honeymoon” as volunteers on a nearby kibbutz. Since we were close to the then hostile Jordanian border security was tight. No one was allowed to approach the kibbutz’s fence by foot after dark. Guard duty was taken very seriously. I still remember the men dressed in prayer shawls holding their guns as they stood in the back of the synagogue and prayed. On that November day, fifty years ago, three terrorists infiltrated the border and made their way to an apartment building in Beit Shean. They murdered four Israelis before the security forces arrived and were able to eliminate them. More than twenty residents were injured, most of them by jumping to safety from second and third floor apartments. Before the army could stop the enraged crowd, they hurled the terrorists’ dead bodies out of the windows, poured petrol on them, and set them ablaze. Dead terrorists do not need our sympathy. Neither do living ones. They do not deserve good treatment in prison. They should not be able to complete their college education while incarcerated. It’s a disgrace that their families receive slay-for-pay benefits. Although not a not a politically correct statement, I believe the only good terrorist is a dead one.  Once dead their terror organizations have no reason to kidnap innocent children, women, and men in order to barter for the release of murderous criminals.