Changing the World
At Jewish Newport
May 2, 2020
Thank you to Rabbi Marc Mandel and Rebecca Beit-Aharon
This week the Jewish calendar was very busy. On Tuesday we observed Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day, and on Wednesday we observed Yom Haatzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day. Israel’s memorial day extends to the victims of terrorism. Members of Zahal, Israel’s armed forces, die not only on the battlefield, but from many other causes including accidents.
On January 4, 1979, I arrived in Israel for the first time. Conditioned by Exodus, the book by Leon Uris and the movie with Lee J. Cobb and Paul Newman, and by my time at Camp Yavneh, I remember thinking that I should kiss the ground when I arrived at the smallish airport. Perhaps I did, but I didn’t note it in my diary.
I used two guide books, Vilnay’s Guide to Israel for the sites and Frommer’s Israel on $15 a Day, for practical information. Early in my trip, I took a bus on a Saturday afternoon from Jerusalem to Be’er Sheva, where I stayed in a youth hostel. Modern Be’er Sheva was founded at the beginning of the 20th century by the Ott0man Turks. Unusually, the old section of town was laid out in a grid. A wonderful street in the center was full of small shops and restaurants.
Frommer’s guide recommended a restaurant which served American style steak. While enjoying my dinner, I heard the sound of English at the next table. It was Glen and Lucille Eliastam (now Eilon). They were celebrating an anniversary or birthday. They had immigrated from Johannesburg, South Africa with their two sons; they later had another son.
The Eilons lived in Talmei Yosef in occupied Sinai. Two weeks later I visited them. Fortunately they were home. At the time, the idea of calling ahead was foreign to me. Glen grew tomatoes in a large plastic-covered greenhouse. The plants were at least 7 feet high, and sat in the sand. I devoted a few hours to volunteer work, picking tomatoes and fixing a greenhouse. After Israel pulled out of Sinai in 1982, the Eilons moved to a Netiv HaAsara, a moshav next to Gaza.
On November 6, 1989, Glen and Lucille’s older son Marc and another Israeli soldier, Nachum Golan, were killed in an accident while testing a tank at the Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona. Marc was the first person to be buried in the Netiv HaAsara cemetery. In an article about the liberators, the Israeli Defense Forces and the Proving Ground, Glen wrote, "We both visit (Mark's) grave every week without fail and commune silently with him. He still features in our everyday lives, part and parcel of every simcha, joy and sadness."
—
Rabbi Marc Mandel of Newport’s Touro Synagogue shares some thoughts with us during which he urges us to change ourselves, and then the world,
“Rabbi Label Lam points out that there is a custom to study Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers) in between Pesach and Shavuot. In Pirkei Avot, Hillel famously stated, ‘If I am not for myself who will be for me, and if I am only for myself then what am I, and if not now then when!?’ The point of fixing myself is to become a resource to help others who want to develop themselves and help others. The reason I work on myself is because the world, and the people around me, need a better and more resourceful version of me!
“Reb Yisrael Salanter, the father of the Mussar Movement, declared that when he was young he wanted to change the world. Then he realized there was enough work to do in his community. Later he realized that he needed to cure himself. He ended up changing the world.”
Shabbat Shalom from Jewish Newport!
No comments:
Post a Comment