When thinking about “Am Yisrael” I am immediately transported back to 8th grade. Just before our graduation trip to Washington D.C., my friend Meira injured her toe and needed crutches and a wheelchair. Incidentally, this enabled our whole class to skip the lines and enter museums and government buildings through special wheelchair accessible entrances. While that was exciting for us, the situation was difficult for Meira. In reaction, her mother taught our whole class a life lesson by telling her daughter, “Look how you only hurt your little toe, but it affects your whole body. You can’t go on as usual. This is what it means to be part of Am Yisrael. We are like a body. If one person is hurting, we all feel it.” I have thought about this lesson a lot since October 7.
I recently arrived in Israel to present at the World Congress of Jewish Studies and immediately, in Ben Gurion airport, I encountered a long corridor of hostage posters. Everywhere I go throughout Israel, every hostage poster, every sticker or magnet memorializing a fallen soldier hits hard. Despite being an outsider, they are all so familiar, their names and faces, because we have all been following so closely. They have been on our minds and in our tefillot from an ocean away. At the same time, Meira from the 8th grade invited me to a simcha, which I will miss because of my trip to Israel. Still, I will celebrate in spirit, because thankfully being part of one people means sharing in others’ happiness too. May we merit as a nation to only cry tears of joy. Am Yisrael Chai!
