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Hope Blecher
Hadassah Educators Council, Hadassah Writers' Circle

A Tallit and Tefillin as a Breath of Oxygen

Photo courtesy of the author.
Photo courtesy of the author.

It begins in a hospital room. Beeps, tears, fears and more fill the air while the patient is receiving oxygen. Literally, my mom was receiving oxygen while I was figuratively breathing anew.

For her, that oxygen was life. For her, a Bikor Cholim rabbi came to visit. (Bikor Cholim is an organization whose mission is to provide support to patients and their families; its members visit people like my mom in the hospital.) For her, that rabbi led my son and brother to wrap tefillin and say the Shema prayer, which declares faith in one God. Tefillin, worn during prayer as a sign of faith and to remind the wearer to follow religious law, are small, black leather boxes with leather straps, containing scrolls of parchment inscribed with verses from the Torah. For me, this ritual kindled a need to have faith—and rekindled a feeling of hope.

Some doctors looked at my mother as a 92-year-old woman for whom I should make a call to hospice. Yet, 24 hours later, a nurse, a general practitioner and a cardiologist saw someone else when they looked at her. They saw a person with a family. They saw a daughter in tears, they heard a son asking questions, they met grandchildren and friends. They heard a heart.

Photo courtesy of the author.
Photo courtesy of the author.

I can only imagine what that heart was feeling while mine was caught up in my throat and tears. Then and there I decided to tip toe into a ritual once prohibited to women, the wearing of a tallit (a Jewish prayer shawl) and the wrapping of tefillin. I would become a wrapper.

Wellness is approached in a variety of ways — through programming, prayers and reaching for spiritual experiences. Wrapping has become part of my wellness plan.

I am reminded of my volunteer organization Hadassah, which not only supports expert healing services at its two world-class medical research hospitals in Jerusalem, but also offers Judaic-based cultural, spiritual and experiential workshops here in America as well as educational trips to Israel. Hadassah provides opportunities for both women and men to meet each other, to network and to grow in a variety of ways.

Hadassah’s mission empowers women to put their values into action. Henrieta Szold, the founder of Hadassah, acted. She helped people learn English, gain access to medical care and more. It is through reading and writing about her that I have kindled a “friendship “with Henrietta Szold. Not only was she a woman of action, but she also persuaded New York’s Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) to allow her to study there, for she wanted to be counted among the learners at a time when that was not permitted at JTS.

I, too, wanted to be counted — as part of a minyan (a quorum of 10 Jewish adults required for certain religious obligations) when that was not yet permitted. Rabbi Carol Balin shares a bit of this history in her video, “It’s Just a Bat Mitzvah Girl Wearing Tefillin”: The Girls Who Sparked a Jewish Gender Revolution.

As I think about the latest generation of Jewish young people, I am reminded of another important aspect of Hadassah’s work: supporting  its Youth Aliyah villages, which aids Israel’s at-risk youth. Through the courses, interpersonal relationships, excursions and daily activities, these teens have a variety of opportunities at their fingertips to grow into the impactful adults they are meant to be. It is as if Henrietta Szold could see each one of these youth when she told the sculptor to “make my eyes look to the future.” 

What will our future look like? What will it sound like and feel like? For me, recently, emotions, values and actions have become intertwined. I’ve added an atarah (prayer collar) to my tallit. What ties this atarah to Hadassah? The tallit artist, Sharon Landecker, is also a member of Hadassah!

Although Landecker and I have not met in person, we have met through Zoom; we’ve chatted through FaceTime and via email. Threads of generations connect us. That, to me, is the wonder of Hadassah. That, to me, is the connection to Henrietta Szold. And, as I just typed Henrietta Szold, I realized that her initials and my first name and middle name are both HS!

As I write this essay, the January 2025 ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, is still in place. The first three hostages have been returned to their families. May that ceasefire still be in place by the time this essay is in front of your eyes and may more hostages be home.

The rosh (the “head,” one of the two black boxes of the tefillin) is worn as a frontlet between one’s eyes. The yad (literally “hand”) is worn on the arm, close to and facing one’s heart. I have purchased two books from the Judaica House in Teaneck, New Jersey, and I am making notes for myself as I read. I am sending emails and making calls on behalf of Israel and Hadassah. I am wrapped in this journey, as I also physically wrap myself in my tallit. These actions provide moments of comfort and meditation, of humming and harmony.

Today, thankfully, my mom is out of the hospital and enjoying herself at her senior activity center. At this moment, my family is safe. I hope you, too, experience feelings of safety. “May peace live in all our eyes. May we see the day when war and bloodshed cease.”

And of those we have lost? I know that they are still here. As my favorite book, The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Euxpéry so beautifully tells us: “They are in the nighttime stars, in the candles we light, in our minds and in our hearts.”

It is for the past, present and future, for the threads of connectivity, that I share this excerpt from my poem,

This Feels Like A Lifeline Connected:

Touching this feels like a lifeline,
Connected.
I hear Barbra singing “Poppa.”
I see her at the Statue of Liberty in Yentl.
I see my Grandpa Ben,
And
I feel him kissing me on the keppee.
Ah, there’s my grandfather, my namesake,
Louis
Elijah,
Eliyahu
Ayelet.
Connected,
Touching this tallis feels like a lifeline.

 . . . .

This tallis,
This tefillin,
This angel,
Believe In,
Believing.
Because one day, I know,
Come rain, sun or snow,
My kids will touch these too,
While counting threads
In a pew
With you.

Hope is a member of the Hadassah Writers’ Circle, a dynamic and diverse writing group for leaders and members to express their thoughts and feelings about all the things Hadassah does to make the world a better place, to celebrate their personal Hadassah journeys and to share their Jewish values, family traditions and interpretations of Jewish texts. Since 2019, the Hadassah Writers’ Circle has published nearly 450 columns in the Times of Israel Blog and other Jewish media outlets. Interested? Please contact hwc@hadassah.org.

About the Author
Dr. Hope Blecher, a member of the Hadassah Educators Council and the Hadassah Writers’ Circle, has been working in the field of education for 40 years. Recently, she incorporated those experiences with her volunteering, books, and artwork into www.DrHopesHub.org. At this site, visitors can explore the nonprofit fund she created, her consultancy, her poetry and books, and artwork. Hope looks forward to bringing Little Free Libraries and Creation Stations to local areas, and to continuing as an ambassador for The Daffodil Project, along with creating workshops for the Liberty Museum and Arts Center, and curating Voices of Survivors: Inspiring Hope, Sanctuary, Compassion and Community. Dr. Hope Blecher holds multiple standard NJDOE issued certifications that she has used by serving as an adjunct professor, a teacher of high school students with special needs, English Language Learners K-adult, and those in the elementary age level classrooms. She earned a BA in Sociology, an MA in Early Childhood Education, and an Ed.D. in Teacher Leadership. She has been a member of Hadassah for over a decade, first in the Southern NJ chapter and currently in the Lower New York State chapter.
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