Builders

“Even Maasu Habonim  Hayata l’rosh pinah “

”Even Maasu Habonim Hayata  l’rosh pinah.”

This is part of  the Hallel prayer  which we just recited this past Sunday and Monday for  the new month of Adar 2.

It’s translation is:

“  The stone that was left by the builders has become the main cornerstone”

Man has a choice, will he be a builder or a destroyer .

Will he build bridges to cross and connect or will he remain wedged in the past.

Will he be a Blamer who chooses the narrative of victimhood  or will he try to build.

I was texting with one of my nephews as he was returning from Israel , and he said to me :

“ Doda,  here in Israel they are builders.

They are always building something.

From displays specifically  to bring awareness and support to the hostages,  and   New buildings and programs  to  renew the land after such terrible tragedy has  hit.”

I then spoke on the phone with a director of  a really special  organization that I support , where they provide much needed support for at risk youth and families in centers across Israel. He told me that they just established a new center in the south, in Sderot. This time it is not only for the youth but an actual program to train the parents in certain work fields with guaranteed work after completion.

I was so moved to hear  about this.

Yes  that is what they do -they build.

It made  me reflect on all the Survivors whom wherever they ended up  in the world, after the Shoah, the Holocaust, they were actively building.

Such as my very own parents. They were all  builders of communities and its infrastructures, Educational Institutions ,  New Medical institutions, businesses, and more and on and on…

After destruction, they built.

It is most unfortunate that the Leaders and regimes such as Iran are so preoccupied with promoting and inculcating a state of  blaming and victimhood rather than one that would promote building and inclusivity and growth.

Man has a choice to at least have a goal of a path to change.

To at least try.

Our mother, savta, savta rabbah ,  z”l wrote many many stories after the Holocaust to share with the youth ; describing how they found ways to be human, to maintain some level of humanity in the most horrific and dire circumstances. They even created a potato menorah on the first night of Chanukah inside the concentration camps. Yes they got caught and yes they were punished but that effort to  create and build something sustained them for a while.

Victor Frenkel often spoke of the moments  of human kindness such as sharing a blanket in the camps, and about finding a purpose in life,

As the tefillah, prayer states:

“ Al tikrah otam banayich ela Bonayich”

Don’t call the  them your Banim.. your children , but instead call them  Bonayich, your builders.

Let us pray for a world where being a builder is most important thus securing  a future, for  all generations, our children, our  hope, our builders.