Choose Life!

  My daughter who is studying in Israel for the year had the privilege of joining a trip to Poland the week before Pesach.  For those of us who have joined such a trip we know how impactful and life-changing it can be.  She was able to go back to Israel before returning to the United States, and there is nothing like going to the Kotel after returning from Poland, asserting with pride that we rebuilt and the Nazis did not win.  That is the emotion that I often feel when experiencing Yom Hoshoah one week and then Yom Haatzmaut the following week. 

I told my daughter that when I went to Poland during my year in Israel, seeing the ghettos and the concentration camps was incredibly emotional and poignant, allowing me to feel the lives of my grandparents and their families and what they went through. But, somehow, seeing the life that was before the Holocaust,  like visiting Yeshivat Chochmei Lublin of Rabbi Meir Shapiro or the shul of the Rama, the city of Gur- the home of the Sfat Emet and the homes with the mezuzot, was equally moving.  I felt inspired and challenged to carry on the Jewish life, the teaching and the transmission of Judaism. 

I recently attended a shiur before Pesach by Dr. Danielle Bloom and she referenced a book called People Love Dead Jews by Dara Horn.  Quite a title!  I have only begun reading the book, but the beginning already struck me.  She asks “What, I asked, was the point of caring so much how people died, if one cared so little about how they lived?”  Horn is a professor of Jewish history and literature and said that her efforts are in “making sure to tell the stories of how Jews had lived and what they had lived for, rather than how they had died.”  One example with which Horn begins her book is how Anne Frank’s diary has sold more than 30 million copies world-wide and her house hosts over a million visitors a year.  And yet, when one employee tried to wear his kippa to work, he was told he could not as they needed to stay “neutral.”  (After four months the museum gave in and allowed him to wear his kippa).  And, in fact, she continues “several direct references to Jewish practice were edited away” from the original publication of the diary.  An instance of caring about how Anne Frank died as a Jew, but not about how she lived. 

And, so when I visited the shul of the Rama who wrote a gloss on the Shulchan Aruch, and saw the seat in which he sat, I celebrated how he lived, and how the people of his shul and community lived as Jews. I left there inspired to continue their legacy. 

As we celebrate Yom Haatzmaut this week, we are in essence celebrating the ability to live the Jewish life that my grandparents and their family lived pre-war- without fear, with independence and with pride.  

In my home, as we cooked and prepared for Pesach, we watched the Dee funerals and the interviews of the people who visited the Dee family.  We felt the deep sadness as the Dees are part of our “family.”  One aspect that struck us all was the ability of Rabbi Dee to not focus on the death of his wife and children, but rather on how they lived. He asked us all in his eulogy and would ask all those who paid shiva calls to learn something or do something different with the way we live our lives. The residents of the Efrat community, along with their rabbi, have put together a graphic based on Rabbi Dee’s words at his wife Lucy’s funeral.  They call them  "Lucy's 7 F's" “an incredible guiding tool that she and Leo used to check in with each other and ensure that they were living directed and purposeful lives.”

And, so rather than focusing on their deaths, we can focus on how they lived. 

Last week the 7th and 8th graders at Yavneh were privileged to hear a presentation by Rabbi Yehuda Segal’s grandmother about her experience in the Holocaust. Hearing Mrs. Sunny Segal’s story first-hand was an incredible opportunity for our students.  Mrs. Rubin highlighted at the end of the presentation that Sunny is a nickname.  In essence the pure “sunshine” that came from her optimism and belief in God made as much of an impact on the students as did her story.  It was not just all about how her relatives died. It was about how she has continued living.  

And, it is therefore no coincidence that the organization Stand With Us came to speak to our 7th graders this past week to launch their next unit in Advisory “Do Not Stand Idly By,” focusing on Israel advocacy.  Even as teens,  after experiencing Yom Hashoah we have an obligation  to not only dwell on the losses, but to consider how we plan on living to make a difference.  And, this year we were joined by a Stand With Us high school intern who shared how even as teenagers they can make a difference. 

It says in Devarim 30:19

הַעִדֹ֨תִי בָכֶ֣ם הַיּוֹם֮ אֶת־הַשָּׁמַ֣יִם וְאֶת־הָאָ֒רֶץ֒ הַחַיִּ֤ים וְהַמָּ֙וֶת֙ נָתַ֣תִּי לְפָנֶ֔יךָ הַבְּרָכָ֖ה וְהַקְּלָלָ֑ה וּבָֽחַרְתָּ֙ בַּחַיִּ֔ים לְמַ֥עַן תִּֽחְיֶ֖ה אַתָּ֥ה וְזַרְעֶֽךָ׃

I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day: I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life—if you and your offspring would live—

This is a strange mitzvah-ובחרת בחיים - of course someone would choose life! Who would choose death? 

Hashem is telling Bnai Yisrael in this pasuk that you need to make a choice- a conscious decision each day to live- to think about how you are living and to live to make a difference.  This is the message that we relay to our students in the weeks of Yom Hashoah, Yom Hazikaron and Yom Haatzmaut. Are you choosing to live a meaningful life?  Are you making a difference in this world? Whether through strengthening one’s shemirat hamitzvot,  Israel advocacy, being kind to others, doing chesed- are you choosing to live a productive life?  Everyone can make a difference- even teenagers. 

Advisory Update:

Sixth Grade: Students focused on bullying and other hurtful behaviors when it comes to cellphone use. 

Seventh Grade: Students discussed the obligation to stand up to racism in the world and bullying in their own classrooms. Stand With Us also did a presentation for the students on media bias and what they can do to stand up for Israel.

Eighth Grade:  Students focused on the dangers of vaping and juuling as part of the Substance Abuse unit.