Vampire Weekend's Surprising Jewish Stories
5 min read
The Jewish People have been mobilized.
Today, while sitting on my couch, I went to a bris.
I wasn’t the only one. One man who also attended digitally stood riveted to the proceedings, watching and even taking part in the sacred ritual from his cell phone. He was dressed in army fatigues and smeared with war paint, and when he said the blessings from his position fighting for the Gaza border communities, his brothers-in-arms answered amen and celebrated with him.
He was the little boy’s father.
The video of this bittersweet moment of love, innovation, danger, and sacrifice was circulated throughout WhatsApp in Israel. Israelis have been ceaselessly sharing horrible and beautiful videos ever since the shock and horror that was Simchat Torah/Shemini Atzeret.
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Little Shmuel Lev (Mazel Tov!) has been born into a complicated situation.
On the one hand, we have the grizzly reality of rabid antisemitism that still afflicts the Jewish people, even on their own soil, the kind of hatred that forced his father to turn away from his celebratory home and take up arms to protect the nation from otherwise certain annihilation. The taking and torturing of over a hundred Jewish captives, many of whom are young women, little children, and elderly, is a nightmare that has jolted the entire country and hurled us all backward into the darkest corners of our past.
On the other, you have the nation of Israel - and this people just proves over and over again how incredible and unstoppable they are
Despite the fear and uncertainty, there was also something else. Camaraderie. Even humor.
As bomb sirens wailed this past Shabbat, apartment buildings and synagogue shelters filled shoulder to shoulder. Despite the fear and uncertainty, there was also something else. Camaraderie. Even humor. In the shelters, people helped each other, asked about each other’s welfare, shared jokes, and information, or just a listening ear. Some took the opportunity to get to know people they only knew in passing, smiling at each other and blessing each other with a good year.
Through it all, there was a sense of a powerful desire to persevere in our Jewish life, even as that life was being threatened. Some synagogues did their Simchat Torah dancing in their bomb shelters, with great, shaking prayers being offered by stunned worshippers for the wounded, the captive, and the soldiers, and songs about the Jewish people’s steadfast faith and fearlessness being sung. Other communities resolutely met as the sun waned, determined to dance with their Torah - and with each other - once the rocket fire lulled.
As the Shabbat holiday ended and every household read the news, the severity of the situation set in. There was mourning. But there was no breaking. The people mobilized. Hard.
Just hours since the Jewish people began reading the Torah anew, they have also turned a page in Israel. There are scores of prayer lists, and donation drop-off points for soldiers, for families from the south, for the stranded, for the injured. There are lists to sign up to host families fleeing rockets, lists to drive soldiers to their draft locations, lists to support families whose fathers and brothers have enlisted - and lists to support the bereaved. There’s a list where stranded holiday travelers and retirees with medical backgrounds can sign up to provide emergency medical support in hospitals. There are signups to cook meals and bake cakes for hundreds of soldiers pouring into different areas. Blood donation points are experiencing long lines. A mother’s milk donation drive is raising milk for babies whose mothers were injured, kidnapped, and worse. Money is being raised to buy updated gear and necessities for soldiers. A Hareidi group has formed for all those who did not serve as IDF soldiers but are ready to volunteer as drivers or to replace national guardsmen if they should need to be galvanized to war. Everyone is desperate - but not for calm. They are desperate for an opportunity to GIVE, to be part of saving our country and our nation.
Girls in Rosh Tzurim deliver baked goods to Israeli soldiers
And there is so much prayer. Never-ending prayer. Some sit and read Psalms and cry. Some bump into a friend at the grocery store only to end the meeting with “May God make us victorious and keep us all safe.” School teachers across Israel - who will not see classrooms again until authorized by the government - have encouraged their students to maintain or increase their Torah learning, some conducting online meetings to check in and to learn together.
The Jewish People have gone through so much together. So much strife, so much bickering, so much infighting.But so much caring. So much nurturing. So much love.
The Jewish people have gone through so much together. So much strife, so much bickering, so much infighting, so much disagreement and disappointment. But so much caring. So much unity. So much nurturing and uplifting and supporting. So much love.
Today we stand together, with the people we love, fighting for the land we love. This beautiful, complicated, powerful nation. May the fathers and brothers return to their loving homes in peace, and may the covenant of Abraham stand as a merit for them and for us all.
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May HaShem bless Shmuel Lev, his entire family, and his country!!!