In honour of the dear Neshama of my father and teacher, Moshe Shimon Ben Pinchas Shraga and Sarah
Last Shabbat we read Parshat Vayehi, the final Parsha of sefer Bereishit. A book that begins with creation and ends with a different kind of creation, Bereishit starts in the macro, Hashem creates the universe, our world, the seas, land and everything that lives in and on them. Bereishit ends with the creation of Am Yisrael.
Yaakov Avinu lived through more than most could bear, his escape from Esau’s wrath, Lavan’s deception, the years he has had to endure without his beloved Rachel, the years he lived with the weight of thinking his favourite son was dead, when actually he was alive. And yet as he nears the end of his life, he does not dwell on the pain, Yaakov gathers his children, blesses them and secures the future, his final concern is not his death but continuity.
Saba lived this same truth in the deepest possible way. As a Nitzol Shoa, his life itself was an act of defiance against destruction, he saw a world collapse and he chose to rebuild, not with slogans and catchphrases, but with life: with the family he and Buba built, withresponsibility, dignity and with faith in the future of Am Yisrael.
The last request of both Yaakov and Yosef, “don’t leave me here in Egypt”, they knew where they belonged. And Saba, like them, knew that he, body and soul, belongs here in Israel.
Baruch Hashem he and Buba lived many happy years in the land he dreamed of as a teenager in the Lodz Ghetto and through the dark period of the camps.
At Mincha time last Shabbat we began book 2 of the Chumash. Sefer Shmot begins with slavery and oppression of Am Yisrael and ends with redemption. But the Torah begins with something striking names.
“V’eleh shmot Bnei Yisrael” Am Yisrael are on the road to becoming slaves in Egypt, but even when stripped of freedom, dehumanised each Jew still has a name, an identity, a purpose to Hashem and a future.
For Saba as a Nitzol Shoa, this truth was not an abstract, it was a lived reality. Even with the number B8787 tattooed on his left forearm he carried his given name, his Jewish identity and his humanity through a time that tried to erase all three. His survival was not only personal it was part of the survival of Am Yisrael.
Zionism our return to Israel is the continuation of this story. After the Shoah, the Jewish people understood with painful clarity that survival must lead to responsibility. Memory must lead to return. The rebirth of Jewish life in Eretz Yisrael is the answer to both Vayechi the endings and Shmot the exiles.
If Yaakov’s final act was to bless his children with a future, then our way to honour Saba is to make sure that future grows stronger.
We stand here today as the continuation of Saba’s victory, our presence, his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, our commitment to Jewish life and to our people in our land are his blessings being fulfilled.
May his memory strengthen us and his survival obligate us
May his Neshama be elevated through the lives we build
Tehi Nishmato Tzrura betzror hachayim – May his neshama be eternally bound in the bonds of life.