Spiritual First Aid

“This morning at 7:04 we got word there would be ballistic missile sirens in a few minutes” wrote Deena Jacob yesterday morning. She’s a labor-and-delivery nurse at Israel’s largest southern hospital. “I ran back from a shift-change to move a woman from an outer room. I took her off the fetal monitor and rushed her into a more protective inner room. 

“The siren started at 7:11. I closed the door and started reconnecting the fetal monitors. Less than a minute later, a boom that shook the entire building, bringing down part of the ceiling, shattering glass – the door slammed open – the power went out, and loud fire alarms began. Everyone screamed. We all huddled together, Muslims, Bedouins, Jews, Christians. 

“Now that I’ve been back home for an hour” she later reflected “I can’t stop shaking. It was so loud. So close. So many women in labor were almost murdered. I can’t believe I lived through this.”

Still, despite daily stories as harrowing as this over the past week, the unified spirit of the People of Israel is as determined and as sturdy as ever. How so? Here’s how. I love how one young mom texted me yesterday. “Tough days but just remembering it’s for a peaceful future.”

That capacity to project-ahead is more than a good idea. It’s good Torah too. 

This week’s portion of Torah features the failed expedition of the Scouts, turning an 11-day journey into a much longer, multi-generational wandering. But the portion also prods us to project ahead. Remarkably, immediately after the devastating news that the people will never get into the Land, we receive laws for “When you come into your homeland” (Num. 15:2).  

I’d never noticed this, but thanks to Leann one of our community’s magnificent learners and teachers of Torah, it’s unmistakable. She notes, “Hope remains and one day the dream will be achieved.”

How long can we keep this up? Every time we think we’re at the brink, so much more is expected of us. And yet, somehow we rise. Somehow get the spiritual first aid we need. Transfusions that turn pain into promise. The portion’s lesson project-ahead is hiding in the folds of our spirits. Tough todays will yet yield to more peaceful tomorrows. Am Yisrael Chai.