Family Is Power
Baruch HaShem, we have seen many miracles in Israel very recently. These events came at an opportune time when Jewish people around the world yelled prayers and heartfelt cries for those suffering in Israel and in the larger Diaspora. As Queen Esther once called to Mordechai, her command לך כנוס את כל היהודים gathered “all” Jews together in prayer. And all Jews succeeded in uplifting the evil decree that was precisely scheduled to decimate our nation.
In our own times of war and upheaval, we see the same impact of our joint actions and efforts to help our brothers and sisters across the ocean. We’ve joined forces to create something BIG. As we repeat many times on the Yomim Noraim, ותשובה ותפילה וצדקה מעבירין את רוע הגזירה: Repentance to HaShem, and prayer to Him, as well as charity, all annul HaShem’s evil decrees.
The first two actions in this list are very much Gd-centered, and the last is essentially from man to man. In other words, charity is very much Godly, but it is based on reaching out your hand to those who are deprived.
Another basic insight into this sentence is that the triple presence of the vav ha-chibbur, the connecting “and”s between each item in the list, is actually meaningful and not just superfluous, in defining each action as standing on its own—as each action is important enough to overturn a bad event in our future. Each action on its own can bring about positive results both in our individual lives and on a national level.
The last item in the list, צדקה, is not only about charity. It’s about honesty, caring about our Jewish siblings who are in pain, and going above and beyond to stand up for what’s right. We see this extension in the root of the word צדקה, based on the word צדק or justice and righteousness. So let’s implement צדקה in its many encompassing avenues to care for one another and do what’s just.
Furthermore, another aspect of interpersonal צדקה or צדק, relates to the command לא תעמד על דם רעך: When you see the blood of your neighbor or friend, don’t just stand there—do something! The Torah is very smart and intentional in how it words its commandments: It doesn’t say “Don’t stand idly by your family’s blood,”but instead: “Don’t stand by your acquaintance’s blood!”
We have an obligation to avoid becoming passively harmful bystanders, and instead protect our relatives, in addition to our friends and neighbors. Through this prism, one can perhaps say that this De’oraisa is a command to see each other not as Jewish strangers but as family whom we are somehow responsible for and should show care for them.
On this note, during the past twelve months of our lives, we have seen so much grief, yet we experienced so much togetherness with making our family our peaceful friends and our friends and neighbors our close family. I believe we cared about each other very genuinely, and it showed.
Family is important, and relating to everyone in our nation as a form of family is also important. If you do a little research, or scroll through your mind, the biggest events in our history were always as a united group of people, with Yetzias Mitzrayim, for instance, Matan Torah, and the construction of the Mishkan and our two Temples (may our Third one come down from Heaven very soon!). If we are historians—which we ought to be, since history is the greatest indicator of patterns of behavior and outcomes—then we would know that the greatest things we’ve achieved were always together.
This tragic year, another tab in our huge binder of color coded dividers, taught us that the Jewish people once again are a family. And family is crucial to survival: Family is power.
Also on a personal level, family is everything. On the first days of Succos, my family and I travelled to our family in Baltimore, Dena and Shragi Abramowitz, who are like my genuine brother and sister. Welcoming me into their lives, they have eight bright, lively, and wonderfully out-of-town, no-snobby-bone-in-their-bodies children. Traveling in for a special yuntif event, we, along with their amazing relatives from pioneering Jewish communities in Texas, all celebrated the Bar Mitzvah of their son, who’s quite the character. It was a blast, while being really meaningful at the same time. Usually good fun is not empty but full of life and blessing.
But back to family: Family is a mix of different personalities and customs. Family’s colorful and great. What would we do without our families?
And on a global level, what would we do without our family? HaShem is our Patriarch, the Shechinah is our Matriarch. The Head of our diverse Jewish family hates when we argue and engage in meaningless machlokes. HaShem truly wants peace amongst us, which is no simple task. Yet, despite this challenge, we’ve accomplished a great deal this year in that respect, with all the turbulence surrounding us.
Fighting is not Godly. Rather, Peace is Godly. And Peace is what brings good results for our people as a whole. In this way, Shalom and Tzedek remove the evil things that are imminent, Heaven forbid!
May the great things that have recently happened for our Jewish family only be the beginning of our victory and our redemption. May the Tzedek of our people and the unending kindnesses prove to be our accompanying סניגורs, as these supporting angels advocate for us before HaShem for an abundance of blessings this year.
May we only have tears of laughter this year as we celebrate, running down the hills of Jerusalem, with our friends, our neighbors, our relatives, and our precious, precious hostages. Their expressions of terror and their sequence of numbered days will forever be seared into our flesh, as a reminder of what it’s like to be alone and apart.
Listen, Israel: HaShem is One and so are we! Family is the most powerful defense we own.