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Jewish unity can be fleeting at times, but those rare moments of Jewish unity have led to who we have become today.
On the holiday of Shavuot, we mark the moment when God revealed the Torah to our ancestors, and to us, as the Midrash teaches, all Jews, past, present and future, we were at Sinai. At Sinai we stood, K'ish Echad B'lev Echad, as if we were one person with one heart. As I thought of the idea of all of us standing together at Sinai, I was reminded of a special concert that occurred on Israel's 70th birthday.
In 2018, a musical group called Koolulam celebrated Israel's Independence Day, by inviting 12,000 people who hadn't met before to sing together in a special event with the artist Shlomi Shabat, accompanied by the Jerusalem Street Orchestra, in collaboration with the office of the President, the Ministry of Social Equality, and the Tel Aviv-Yafo municipality. Together, they sang the following song: Al Kol Eileh written by the famous Israeli poet and songwriter Naomi Shemer following the Yom Kippur War:
Over the honey and the stinger
Over the bitter and the sweet
Over our daughter, our baby
My God, watch over what is good
Chorus:
Over all these, Over all these
God please watch over them for me,
Over the honey and the stinger
Over the bitter and the sweet
Watch over this house for me, my God,
the garden, and the wall
protect them from pain, from sudden fear
and from war.
Over the honey and the stinger...over the bitter and the sweet.
These words actually have an origin in our Midrash. The Midrash (Midrash Tanchuma Balak 6) imagines a scenario where someone, when confronted by a bee, says, I don't want your honey, nor your sting. Shemer rejects this notion in her song; she embraces the notion that one cannot have the sweet without the bitter, the honey without the sting. This is what it means to love the modern state of Israel.
After the protests that are still ongoing and the debate over judicial reform in Israel, it is hard to imagine that such unity once occurred. Jewish unity was once again needed to create the modern state of Israel in the late 1800s, and it is needed now.
This year, we have two opportunities to celebrate Jewish Unity. The first will occur tonight on our Federation campus as the entire community joins together for an evening of learning right before Shavuot, with the theme of Torah and K'ish Echad B'lev Echad. This program not only serves as an opportunity to learn Torah but also provides an excellent opportunity for members of different communities to learn together with people they would never get a chance to meet (details on the flyer below).
And of course, we will gather as a congregation for our night of learning on Shavuot. I take great pride that our congregation is the only non-Orthodox synagogue in South Florida that holds an all-night Tikkun Leil Shavuot. Our theme this year is Zionism: An Infinite Idea - the Past, Present, and Future of Israel. We have a full lineup of talented teachers, and delicious dairy desserts that will be served all night long. Please stand with us once again at Sinai for what promises to be an unforgettable evening!
Wishing you all a Shabbat Shalom and a Hag Sameach!
Rabbi David Baum
CLICK HERE FOR A FULL SCHEDULE OF OUR SHAVUOT EVENING OF STUDY
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