What a beautifully written way to honor Israel, Israelis, and Diaspora Jews. Thank you for this touching, heartfelt tribute to those who lost their lives and to those who live, though differently, after October 7th. Israelis and Diaspora Jews will always embrace life and freedom, and do whatever is necessary to keep both.
One time I was in a sherut on the highway from Ben Gurion to Haifa when the sirens sounded for one of the Memorial Days. We stopped; the driver and all the passengers got out of the car. We stood on the highway in silence to mark our respect. I am a Bahá’í and I have been in Haifa many times, including during major international Bahá’í conventions in the Haifa Convention Center. When the siren sounded during convention session the session was suspended and we all stood in respectful silence. These are the most moving times I recall in Israel.
As always, a wonderful, emotional essay, splendidly written.....thank you so much Joshua......we won't forget our people, specially the ones we lost.....and let's hope that soon our hostages will be back home......Am Israel Chai....
Among your many talents, you have a gift, intellect, and determination to exceed yourself.
As I contemplate that and realize that to exceed oneself repeatedly is a gift often found within the Jewish People. A secret often hidden from ourselves.
Another unspoken gift with the Jewish People, generally, is that they/we transform things. Often collaboratively with those not of our Culture. We do not necessarily exceed in invention per se. Reinvention and transformation is often more our domain.
In fact according to our Source and sources to transform the world as we know it is our raison d’etre. We do it step-by-step. In virtually every field of human endeavor one by one. In every country where we landed temporarily - for centuries.
Transformation of the material world starts with transforming ourselves. Again, according to our Source and sources and our Cultural Practices. Speaking for myself I could improve my practices. Fortunately one does not have to be perfect to begin transforming whatever lands in one’s sight.
You hint at, intended or not, a central Cultural Practice. “Prayers rise up like incense between the cracks of the wall”. Such prayers can and do take place anywhere. The cracks are within us. The cracks for space to transform oneself. Your message also hints of the prayers written and placed in the cracks of THE wall, the Kotel. But for those who know, your words remind us in a prayer-like way of The Incense Offering long ago near the Kotel. From nearly 1400 B.C.E. and for nearly 1500 years the Incense Offering was a physicalized practice even preceding the Kotel.
Now the Incense Offering is physicalized through reading/reciting aloud at the same time as relearning mentally with kavanah (contemplative concentration).
In fact, the action to learn and study, daily, the Offerings is considered a most profound formal meditation, in our Culture. The commandment to learn and to study is considered a Divine connection which an individual can take responsibility and control over.
The idea though is to actively learn and to study Torah as a way of transforming oneself in order to help transform the world. In every field. Step by step.
To learn and to study The Offerings including the Incense offering is laid before us as a daily practice in the Siddur. My version of Siddur is virtually a mini encyclopedia for all things Jewish. I emphasise ‘the mini version’. It is still mostly way beyond my pay grade!! My version is the Expanded Artscroll Siddur. It is replete with notes and wisps and hints of sources for clarification or deeper study.
Your essay is transformative. It is an offering. May many of us readers take up the offer and the challenge and get back to our Source and sources.
Since October, 2023 via Future of Jewish in your writings and your guests there have been repeated and varied offerings.
As a Culture we share one thing with Western Civilization… we need, separately and deeply, to make the daily effort to get back to our fully Kosher Source and sources. One of the most complex, obscure, and even seemingly absurd means is to work to break through the mental, intellectual, mystical and spiritual rituals such as the Incense offering and the rest of The Offerings.
“Prayers rise up like incense between the cracks of the wall”. Is a hint, intended or otherwise, as a word to the wise.
Toda rabah and hatzlacha in continued exceedingly transformative ways.
So beautifully written. Hubby and I lived in Israel for 6 years in our 20s, and we remember the heavy feeling of universal pain that permeated the air during that siren - the silence was so eerie yet magical! This moment of silence during the last two Yom HaZicharons must have been the most intense in decades!
Joshua, your ability to craft sentences and create such moving articles is exemplary. Thank you for sharing your talent. I am grateful to have found your blog.
One can and should a demonstration that quickly escalated out of control but the exercise of moral equivalence between those who died al Kiddush HaShem and their perpetrators reeks
Another masterpiece, Joshua. I am just back from a somber community commemoration in Vancouver, but had the meaningful experience of starting my remembrance early through reading your beautiful tribute. I am saving this one, like so many others I want to be able to access in the future.
In the US we have Memorial Day, to honor the war dead. We have Veteran's Day, to honor those who served in the military. These are now mostly days of celebration, partying now, with many young people not knowing the what and the why. We have no Yom HaZikaron, which is a day of mourning and remembering. It is a memorial of yesterday and a reminder of today. It is a day when personal pain is fresh, not a memory of others' sacrifice. There is much difference between wars fought on foreign soil and wars fought for survival on your own land. Your war dead are soldiers, but they are also fathers and mothers and children.
I have been to Israel many times, unfortunately I have missed this moment of silence. It was one of my life’s dreams to experience this at least once. It is unique to our people. I’m sorry to say that I probably will never experience it, but it’s in my heart forever.
What a beautifully written way to honor Israel, Israelis, and Diaspora Jews. Thank you for this touching, heartfelt tribute to those who lost their lives and to those who live, though differently, after October 7th. Israelis and Diaspora Jews will always embrace life and freedom, and do whatever is necessary to keep both.
One time I was in a sherut on the highway from Ben Gurion to Haifa when the sirens sounded for one of the Memorial Days. We stopped; the driver and all the passengers got out of the car. We stood on the highway in silence to mark our respect. I am a Bahá’í and I have been in Haifa many times, including during major international Bahá’í conventions in the Haifa Convention Center. When the siren sounded during convention session the session was suspended and we all stood in respectful silence. These are the most moving times I recall in Israel.
As always, a wonderful, emotional essay, splendidly written.....thank you so much Joshua......we won't forget our people, specially the ones we lost.....and let's hope that soon our hostages will be back home......Am Israel Chai....
Among your many talents, you have a gift, intellect, and determination to exceed yourself.
As I contemplate that and realize that to exceed oneself repeatedly is a gift often found within the Jewish People. A secret often hidden from ourselves.
Another unspoken gift with the Jewish People, generally, is that they/we transform things. Often collaboratively with those not of our Culture. We do not necessarily exceed in invention per se. Reinvention and transformation is often more our domain.
In fact according to our Source and sources to transform the world as we know it is our raison d’etre. We do it step-by-step. In virtually every field of human endeavor one by one. In every country where we landed temporarily - for centuries.
Transformation of the material world starts with transforming ourselves. Again, according to our Source and sources and our Cultural Practices. Speaking for myself I could improve my practices. Fortunately one does not have to be perfect to begin transforming whatever lands in one’s sight.
You hint at, intended or not, a central Cultural Practice. “Prayers rise up like incense between the cracks of the wall”. Such prayers can and do take place anywhere. The cracks are within us. The cracks for space to transform oneself. Your message also hints of the prayers written and placed in the cracks of THE wall, the Kotel. But for those who know, your words remind us in a prayer-like way of The Incense Offering long ago near the Kotel. From nearly 1400 B.C.E. and for nearly 1500 years the Incense Offering was a physicalized practice even preceding the Kotel.
Now the Incense Offering is physicalized through reading/reciting aloud at the same time as relearning mentally with kavanah (contemplative concentration).
In fact, the action to learn and study, daily, the Offerings is considered a most profound formal meditation, in our Culture. The commandment to learn and to study is considered a Divine connection which an individual can take responsibility and control over.
The idea though is to actively learn and to study Torah as a way of transforming oneself in order to help transform the world. In every field. Step by step.
To learn and to study The Offerings including the Incense offering is laid before us as a daily practice in the Siddur. My version of Siddur is virtually a mini encyclopedia for all things Jewish. I emphasise ‘the mini version’. It is still mostly way beyond my pay grade!! My version is the Expanded Artscroll Siddur. It is replete with notes and wisps and hints of sources for clarification or deeper study.
Your essay is transformative. It is an offering. May many of us readers take up the offer and the challenge and get back to our Source and sources.
Since October, 2023 via Future of Jewish in your writings and your guests there have been repeated and varied offerings.
As a Culture we share one thing with Western Civilization… we need, separately and deeply, to make the daily effort to get back to our fully Kosher Source and sources. One of the most complex, obscure, and even seemingly absurd means is to work to break through the mental, intellectual, mystical and spiritual rituals such as the Incense offering and the rest of The Offerings.
“Prayers rise up like incense between the cracks of the wall”. Is a hint, intended or otherwise, as a word to the wise.
Toda rabah and hatzlacha in continued exceedingly transformative ways.
Thoroughly enjoyed reading this beautiful essay, Joshua H! Kol hakavod!
So beautifully written. Hubby and I lived in Israel for 6 years in our 20s, and we remember the heavy feeling of universal pain that permeated the air during that siren - the silence was so eerie yet magical! This moment of silence during the last two Yom HaZicharons must have been the most intense in decades!
Joshua, your ability to craft sentences and create such moving articles is exemplary. Thank you for sharing your talent. I am grateful to have found your blog.
What an important essay about a very important day ! We should never let it be diluted by those suggest this kind of moral equivalence and intellectually bankrupt unwarranted equivalence between murderers and soldiers https://www.timesofisrael.com/an-alternative-memorial-day-ceremony-marks-its-20th-year-participants-say-its-the-future/
One can and should a demonstration that quickly escalated out of control but the exercise of moral equivalence between those who died al Kiddush HaShem and their perpetrators reeks
Another masterpiece, Joshua. I am just back from a somber community commemoration in Vancouver, but had the meaningful experience of starting my remembrance early through reading your beautiful tribute. I am saving this one, like so many others I want to be able to access in the future.
In the US we have Memorial Day, to honor the war dead. We have Veteran's Day, to honor those who served in the military. These are now mostly days of celebration, partying now, with many young people not knowing the what and the why. We have no Yom HaZikaron, which is a day of mourning and remembering. It is a memorial of yesterday and a reminder of today. It is a day when personal pain is fresh, not a memory of others' sacrifice. There is much difference between wars fought on foreign soil and wars fought for survival on your own land. Your war dead are soldiers, but they are also fathers and mothers and children.
Powerful, beautifully written and so true.
Exquisite article, profound , poignant , deeply felt and deeply communicated. I was so moved that I wept through my reading, Yasher Koach.
Thank you.
I have been to Israel many times, unfortunately I have missed this moment of silence. It was one of my life’s dreams to experience this at least once. It is unique to our people. I’m sorry to say that I probably will never experience it, but it’s in my heart forever.