Several years ago, one of my favorite artists, Ehud Banai (singer/songwriter/musician), was interviewed on television. He recounted a short vignette that appeared in his book that was published that same year called, "Remembering Almost Everything".
(זוכר כמעט הכל).
Yuval Glick was only 19 when his airforce plane went down into the Sea of Galilee (in Hebrew - Kinneret). His mother had immigrated from Bulgaria as a teenager and had a difficult period of adjustment. But one day she was taken on a trip to the Kinneret and the sight of the sea that greeted her, made her feel as if she had come home. Every year she would travel to the same spot where she had first seen the Kinneret. She contacted Banai and told him all about her son who had been a fan of Banai's.
After her son died she no longer traveled to the Kinneret, she felt anger towards the lake for taking her son.
Four years later, she called Banai again to tell him of a life changing event. She finally decided to go back to the Kinneret, for reconciliation. During the long journey from the south, she had a tape of Banai's music playing over and over. She would drive, then stop, cry and then continue driving. As she reached the very spot where she had first seen the Kinneret, she heard Banai's voice emanate from the speakers:
"What can I say,
What can I say,
Here I set,
But elsewhere I rise."
מה יש לדבר,
מה יש לדבר,
אני שוקע כאן,
אבל זורח במקום אחר
The recent tragedy in Mumbai has affected everyone here in some way or another. I was on call in the delivery room on the Sabbath providing epidurals for women in labor as the depressing news came in, but I packed it away. After all, babies being born is a joyous occasion.
By all accounts, Rabbi Holzberg and his wife Rivka H"YD, were exceptional people. I didn't know them, but their murder shook me. We all know why they and others in the Chabad House were murdered, because they were Jews. While they were brutally murdered in Mumbai, here, in Tel Aviv, Jewish babies were being born.
Perhaps the sun that set in Mumbai rose elsewhere.
(זוכר כמעט הכל).
Yuval Glick was only 19 when his airforce plane went down into the Sea of Galilee (in Hebrew - Kinneret). His mother had immigrated from Bulgaria as a teenager and had a difficult period of adjustment. But one day she was taken on a trip to the Kinneret and the sight of the sea that greeted her, made her feel as if she had come home. Every year she would travel to the same spot where she had first seen the Kinneret. She contacted Banai and told him all about her son who had been a fan of Banai's.
After her son died she no longer traveled to the Kinneret, she felt anger towards the lake for taking her son.
Four years later, she called Banai again to tell him of a life changing event. She finally decided to go back to the Kinneret, for reconciliation. During the long journey from the south, she had a tape of Banai's music playing over and over. She would drive, then stop, cry and then continue driving. As she reached the very spot where she had first seen the Kinneret, she heard Banai's voice emanate from the speakers:
"What can I say,
What can I say,
Here I set,
But elsewhere I rise."
מה יש לדבר,
מה יש לדבר,
אני שוקע כאן,
אבל זורח במקום אחר
The recent tragedy in Mumbai has affected everyone here in some way or another. I was on call in the delivery room on the Sabbath providing epidurals for women in labor as the depressing news came in, but I packed it away. After all, babies being born is a joyous occasion.
By all accounts, Rabbi Holzberg and his wife Rivka H"YD, were exceptional people. I didn't know them, but their murder shook me. We all know why they and others in the Chabad House were murdered, because they were Jews. While they were brutally murdered in Mumbai, here, in Tel Aviv, Jewish babies were being born.
Perhaps the sun that set in Mumbai rose elsewhere.
4 comments:
What a beautiful post!
Nicely said. Practically a haiku. Thank you.
With all that has been written about those heartless murders, this is the first thing I have read which has actually been comforting as well as empowering. Thank you.
I totally missed this post until now, and I love it.
My father once told me when I was very, very young: "Always remember you are a Jew, because even if you don't, there are those in this world who always will".
We will always be a target, but as long as there "Jewish babies being born in Tel-Aviv" and in Jerusalem and Be'er Sheva, and in New York and Africa and India and ....and....we will outlast them.
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