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From the Rabbi:
As we reside here in the West, our hearts and minds are found in the East, in the Land of Israel. Parashat Bereishit holds a lesson to find strength in these troubling times.
The parasha describes the geography of the Garden of Eden: "A river went out of Eden to water the Garden, and from there it divides into four headwaters. The name of the first is Pishon which surrounds all the land of Chavilah, where there is gold. The gold of that land is good. Also found there are bdellium and onyx stones." (Bereishit 2:12)
Where is the land of Chavilah? According to Bereishit Raba (16:4), the Land of Israel is hinted to as “Eretz HaChavilah."
We learn this from Tehillim 42:6: "Why are you miserable, my soul, and why are you disturbed on my account? Hope (Hochili) to God! I will yet thank Him for the salvations of His presence."
Rashi explains the word Hochili (hope) to mean "wait and look forward to the redemption." Thus, the Land of Israel is the Land of Hope.
Throughout the world, Jews are looking to the book of Psalms to find strength and bring merit to our brethren in Israel. One such verse reads: "Be strong, let your hearts take courage, all who wait longingly (hameyachlim) for God." (Tehillim 31:25)
Rabbi Sacks said: "And a day will one day come when the story of Israel in modern times will speak not just to Jews, but to all who believe in the power of the human spirit as it reaches out to God as an everlasting symbol of the victory of life over death, hope over despair."
Israel has taken a barren land and made it bloom again… It’s taken a tattered, shattered nation and made it live again.
Israel is the country whose national anthem, Hatikvah, means "hope."
Israel is the home of hope, and the Jews, the people of hope.
Despite it all, we gaze heavenward and declare, our hope is not lost.
Shabbat Shalom!
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