Last week we received that annual Rememberance Day for the Holocaust, a day which does not appear on the original Jewish calendar of holidays and dates.
This day starts the three sirens that the country hears,tears, and fears in a 7 day mourning period. The streets, cars, and busses rest for two minutes at 10 AM on the Holocaust Day in Israel as the sirens scream for help from G-d.
I was driving to a meeting in Tel Aviv as I nervously watched my clock and speedometer. At 9:58AM, the cars started to slow down and without a highway police officer flagging you down to the side of the freeway,the cars and trucks and busses began to stop on this 100km per hour speedway. I stood outside the car trying to picture the grandparents that I never met, burned in Hitler's camps,while the other car owners,older and younger than me standing nearby were holding the kleenex on their eyes. Those of us wearing our sunglasses could not shield the tears dropping from our eyes too. The sirens stopped in its descending tone and the startup of the car engines began as we raced back into reality.
Throughout the days that follow the beginning of this 'shiva like' period until yesterday's commemoration of Yom Hazikaron where we hear an opening siren at 8PM and a midday 11AM secondary siren, the country is full of preparations for which cemetery one can visit the 20,000 buried soldiers, victims of terrorist attacks, and policemen killed in the last 52 years. As we watched the precise religious ceremony which begins at the Western Wall as the Iranian immigrant named Moshe Katzav, our President, lights the 'opening torch' we ponder some thoughts about "G-d is Making Noises."
It is interesting and worth pondering as to why the Holocaust Rememberance Day ceremonies commence at Yad Vashem, a museum, and the ceremonies for the Yom Hazikaron begin at one of Judaism's holiest sites, the foot of the Temple. Perhaps the Temple, the Beit Hamikdash is where it all began for Jews in their daily prayers and practices while the 'modern' museum reminds us of the modern world's attempt to rid itself of the Jews, only 60 years ago.
My 4 year old asked me last week after the first siren which was accompanied a few minutes later by the artillery fire and tank missiles overhead, "Why is G-d Making those Noises, Abba?" I looked at this innocent sabra (native Israeli) and was asking the same question (as an adult who has lived through the LA earthquakes, the riots, the crime of the big US cities) and want to look for those answers too. I asked my son which noises did he think G-d was making outside?
The 5 1/2 year old bigger sister tried to explain to her 4 year old brother that G-d makes sirens on the ambulances so that the Jews or soldiers (in her eyes, if you're not a Jew (civilian), you are a soldier), move over to the side so that those with sirens can get to the hospital faster because a Jew is bleeding. She continues her explanation that the siren outside at 8PM was for Abba's saba and safta [grandfather and grandmother] who were left bleeding in their 'summer camp' by those bad guys. "But G-d is still making noises outside," continues my 4 year old. He was referring to the tank and helicopter noises echoing in the hills of Judea nearby. Those noises that G-d is making, according to this dialogue witnessed by Abba and Eema [Dad and Mom], "Is to not let any Jew bleed outside so we have to beat up those bad guys ACHSHAV (now)."
Yesterday, a few minutes before 11AM, I walked over to my 5 1/2 year old's PRE 1A class to watch my daughter's reaction to the new noise that "G-d was making." As her classmate, Rachel, read a poem she had written to her older brother Moshe, a soldier who was killed in Lebanon, a brother that, as an infant 5 years ago, Rachel had never 'met.' As the sirens began, I watched my daughter staring at Rachel who was crying. Those noises of G-d were doing its thing again to the PRE 1A, and yes, to me behind my sunglasses.
Last night we transitioned from the tehilim read by the son of Baruch Cohen H"YD of Efrat in the final minutes of Yom Hazikaron into the music and ruach of Yom Haatzmaut celebrations here in Efrat. As I looked around the 3,000 celebrants in the park, the one minute of silence of the closing ceremony was disturbed by the tank fire again reponding to shots fired at Gilo from Beit Jala. Yes, we Jews would never disturb the Arab's Ramadan with "G-d's Noises", but the inhuman neighbors who shoot 10 month old babies in the head would not be concerned about our holiday.
Again, my 4 year old looked up at me during the silent moment, awaiting a response about G-d's noises. I did not know whether he meant the sirens, the tank shells, the music of Yom Haatzmaut or the spectacular fireworks that lit up the skies of Israel at the conclusion of the Yom Haatzmaut celebration. The colors and noises from the fireworks, following the singing of Hatikva, were again 'Noises from G-d' in his eyes.
May we pray that the verses of Hallel which some recite today be the only future 'noises from G-d' of rejoicing and rebirth of a Jewish nation without all the other noises.
Chag Sameach
Silence (for Now)
Harvey Tannenbaum
This day starts the three sirens that the country hears,tears, and fears in a 7 day mourning period. The streets, cars, and busses rest for two minutes at 10 AM on the Holocaust Day in Israel as the sirens scream for help from G-d.
I was driving to a meeting in Tel Aviv as I nervously watched my clock and speedometer. At 9:58AM, the cars started to slow down and without a highway police officer flagging you down to the side of the freeway,the cars and trucks and busses began to stop on this 100km per hour speedway. I stood outside the car trying to picture the grandparents that I never met, burned in Hitler's camps,while the other car owners,older and younger than me standing nearby were holding the kleenex on their eyes. Those of us wearing our sunglasses could not shield the tears dropping from our eyes too. The sirens stopped in its descending tone and the startup of the car engines began as we raced back into reality.
Throughout the days that follow the beginning of this 'shiva like' period until yesterday's commemoration of Yom Hazikaron where we hear an opening siren at 8PM and a midday 11AM secondary siren, the country is full of preparations for which cemetery one can visit the 20,000 buried soldiers, victims of terrorist attacks, and policemen killed in the last 52 years. As we watched the precise religious ceremony which begins at the Western Wall as the Iranian immigrant named Moshe Katzav, our President, lights the 'opening torch' we ponder some thoughts about "G-d is Making Noises."
It is interesting and worth pondering as to why the Holocaust Rememberance Day ceremonies commence at Yad Vashem, a museum, and the ceremonies for the Yom Hazikaron begin at one of Judaism's holiest sites, the foot of the Temple. Perhaps the Temple, the Beit Hamikdash is where it all began for Jews in their daily prayers and practices while the 'modern' museum reminds us of the modern world's attempt to rid itself of the Jews, only 60 years ago.
My 4 year old asked me last week after the first siren which was accompanied a few minutes later by the artillery fire and tank missiles overhead, "Why is G-d Making those Noises, Abba?" I looked at this innocent sabra (native Israeli) and was asking the same question (as an adult who has lived through the LA earthquakes, the riots, the crime of the big US cities) and want to look for those answers too. I asked my son which noises did he think G-d was making outside?
The 5 1/2 year old bigger sister tried to explain to her 4 year old brother that G-d makes sirens on the ambulances so that the Jews or soldiers (in her eyes, if you're not a Jew (civilian), you are a soldier), move over to the side so that those with sirens can get to the hospital faster because a Jew is bleeding. She continues her explanation that the siren outside at 8PM was for Abba's saba and safta [grandfather and grandmother] who were left bleeding in their 'summer camp' by those bad guys. "But G-d is still making noises outside," continues my 4 year old. He was referring to the tank and helicopter noises echoing in the hills of Judea nearby. Those noises that G-d is making, according to this dialogue witnessed by Abba and Eema [Dad and Mom], "Is to not let any Jew bleed outside so we have to beat up those bad guys ACHSHAV (now)."
Yesterday, a few minutes before 11AM, I walked over to my 5 1/2 year old's PRE 1A class to watch my daughter's reaction to the new noise that "G-d was making." As her classmate, Rachel, read a poem she had written to her older brother Moshe, a soldier who was killed in Lebanon, a brother that, as an infant 5 years ago, Rachel had never 'met.' As the sirens began, I watched my daughter staring at Rachel who was crying. Those noises of G-d were doing its thing again to the PRE 1A, and yes, to me behind my sunglasses.
Last night we transitioned from the tehilim read by the son of Baruch Cohen H"YD of Efrat in the final minutes of Yom Hazikaron into the music and ruach of Yom Haatzmaut celebrations here in Efrat. As I looked around the 3,000 celebrants in the park, the one minute of silence of the closing ceremony was disturbed by the tank fire again reponding to shots fired at Gilo from Beit Jala. Yes, we Jews would never disturb the Arab's Ramadan with "G-d's Noises", but the inhuman neighbors who shoot 10 month old babies in the head would not be concerned about our holiday.
Again, my 4 year old looked up at me during the silent moment, awaiting a response about G-d's noises. I did not know whether he meant the sirens, the tank shells, the music of Yom Haatzmaut or the spectacular fireworks that lit up the skies of Israel at the conclusion of the Yom Haatzmaut celebration. The colors and noises from the fireworks, following the singing of Hatikva, were again 'Noises from G-d' in his eyes.
May we pray that the verses of Hallel which some recite today be the only future 'noises from G-d' of rejoicing and rebirth of a Jewish nation without all the other noises.
Chag Sameach
Silence (for Now)
Harvey Tannenbaum