Give a Hand to Israel
Tonight, on balconies all around Israel, ten
of thousands of people went out and clapped for 30 seconds. President Rivlin
had asked them to do so in honor of the heroes working in hospitals around the
country. Videos of this moment are exceptionally inspiring; a group of
quarantined people uniting in a powerful public demonstration of gratitude.
Community is one of the casualties of the
coronavirus. When people can't gather together, they can't pray together and they
can't celebrate weddings and Seders together. In halakha, the ten people in a minyan must be
in the same room to count as a community; distance means that community ceases
to exist. And without the direct personal connection there's something
profoundly missing. A friend of mine once showed me postcards of correspondence
that his grandfather, a rabbi in New Jersey in the early 1900s, sent to the
major rabbis in Europe in his time. Many dealt with writs of divorce, from men who had went ahead of their wives to America, and instead of sending a boat ticket sent a divorce. The distance
between the spouses ended up leaving them emotionally distant.
The clapping Israelis on the balconies teach
us that doesn't have to be. Aside from personal connection, there is a second
element to communities: solidarity. One can feel connected to a person they
have never met before if they are related. Judaism sees the Jewish people as
being part of the same family, and being guarantors for each other. Throughout
Jewish history Jews who had never met before embraced each other as brothers
and sisters; and a stranger visiting from out of town knew that he only had to
go to the local synagogue for some help. This sense of solidarity doesn't
require a personal touch, it just requires a sensitive heart.
Israelis understand this intuitively. Walking
on the street, there's no such thing as minding your own business. Complete
strangers will come to help you, offer you advice, and treat you as part of
family. The lessons of solidarity are part of Israel's DNA.
We are now in a time where we stand at a great
distance from each other, locked into our own homes. But the lessons of
solidarity are this: if our hearts are connected, no distance is too far.
I'd like to give a hand to all those Israelis
this evening for reminding us of that lesson.
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