My Connection with Matan Angerest

The awareness that he was captive in Gaza tempered every joyful moment and deepened every sad one.

How am I connected with Matan, you ask?

Matan loves fitness.
I haven’t been in a gym for at least two years.

Matan is a fan of Maccabi Haifa.
I’ve never watched a soccer game (sorry, Timber Nation).

Matan loves Israeli music.
Well, maybe we can connect over Od Yoter Tov…

And yet, in an almost inexplicable way, Matan and I are intertwined — enmeshed and defined — by a book.

In fact, the Koran itself calls both of us “the People of the Book.”

Truth be told, we are not simply the people of the Book; we are a people because of the Book.

In the words of the 10th-century Iraqi sage Rabbi Saadia Gaon:

Our nation, the people of Israel, is a nation only by virtue of the Torah.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks put it this way:

The whole of Judaism is an extended love story between a people and a book — between Jews and the Torah.

Never has a people loved and honoured a book more.
They read it, studied it, argued with it, lived it.

In its presence they stood as if it were a king.
On Simchat Torah they danced with it as if it were a bride.

If — God forbid — it fell, they fasted.
If it was no longer fit for use, they buried it as if it were a relative that had died.

On the day we danced with the Torah — exactly two years ago — Matan’s tank was attacked by Hamas. His three comrades fell. He was injured and taken into captivity.

Two years later, to the day, we are preparing once again to dance with the Torah.
This time, we look forward to dancing with Matan.

In the words of the Zohar,

The Jewish people, the Torah, and the Holy One, blessed be He, are one.

Together, we will all dance.

It’s hard to believe it’s actually happening. It’s feels like a brother is coming home. A brother through a book. Boruch Hashem!