THE PHOENIX BIRD

  My granddaughter, who is studying in Israel, was very distraught as she told me about her experience when she attended the funerals of two young beautiful IDF soldiers who were killed, mercilessly, at the hands of a terrorist crashing his truck into a group of soldiers standing at a bus stop.   

   It is at this moment I recall the words of Norman Cousins, "Human progress inevitably depends on enough men defining the values they want to live by and then backing those standards by wise and appropriate means". 

   Terrorists are murderers. Terrorists kill indiscriminately. Terrorists are killers and are not to be treated with any humaneness. Their values are valueless. 

    These are times when we are to remember the legend of the Phoenix bird which never dies. When it grows old and weary it is consumed in flames and turns to ashes, then it is reborn and resumes its flight again. 

   To my dear granddaughter I say, "Know well that the Jews are like that fabled firebird, despised widely, decimated by progroms  and a holocaust.  However, just like our righteous IDF soldiers they will rise from the ashes and declare with the Psalmist;

    " I shall not die but live and declare the glory of 

G-D"

    We read in this week's sedrah that Yaakov dies and yet Chazal say יעקב לא מת Jacob did not die. 

   Our Jacob, our Yisrael is our Phoenix bird that stays alive in our hearts and minds , in our values and our ethical way of life, in our Torah and in our Spirituality. 

    We see from our Shevatim that the Jewish People have become the eternal people, not because they were allowed to live, but because they were not allowed to live. Just because they were asked to give more than life, it was life itself.

  The words of Yosef remain with us as we face the world of hatred.  The  words that he spoke to his brothers who were worried that he would take revenge on them for what they did to him assuaged their fears; אל תראו אתם חשבתם על רעה ואלוקים חשבה לטובה "You intended evil against me, but G-D intended it for good". Yosef convinced his brothers that he was not only their benefactor, but also their beneficiary and all that occurred will bring comfort and Blessing to their existence, and eventually to the future of   כלל ישראל. 

  The Torah goes on to say that Yosef convinced them because וידבר אל לבם, "He spoke to their hearts." For me, it really means, "He spoke with his heart" and when Jews speak heart to heart , then the Jewish People are everlasting.  

 I shall wait with baited breathe, when all Jews will realize this truism for their survival, a survival built upon אהבת ישראל coupled with 'אהבת ה.  

  May this day come quickly and while waiting we will pray for the Neshamos of those righteous souls who were killed this past week in  Yerushalayim. 

  May we see speedily in our day and age  the coming of משיח that will herald a world of peace and serenity הי יברך את עמו בשלום. 

               שבת שלום