Words From Rabbi White

Dear Chevra Shaas/Shearit Israel,

I know that I have related this meaningful personal story to you in the past. However, in light of the terrible problems that Israel has been facing since Simchat Torah, and especially as I see the vicious protests going on now in Chicago, I felt that I must repeat it, as it is an expression of how precious the Land is to all of us.

Many years ago, I had the privilege of taking my family on a year’s sabbatical in Jerusalem. We left Montreal on a Wednesday evening in August, the week of parashat `eiqev, via EL AL, when it was still offering direct flights from Mirabel airport.

On the flight, I met an old friend from my home town Boston, who was traveling to Israel via a Montreal stopover. In my friend’s capacity as the gabbai of the Bostoner Rebbe’s shul, he was bringing with him a Sefer Torah, to be used in the Rebbe’s community in Har Nof, Jerusalem. My friend and I were traveling tourist class, but El AL gave the Torah the honour of being stored in First Class.

 Thursday morning, as the plane was approaching Israel, a minyan was formed for shaharit. Since, when davening in a minyan on Thursday mornings, the Torah is read, [the first aliya of the weekly parasha] and since EL AL does not normally carry a torah on board, we asked the steward if we could use my friend’s Torah. He refused, because he did not want to disturb the first-class passengers, but after considerable pleading with the steward, he let us use the Torah.

Actually, we would never have been allowed to do it, were it not for the fact that one of the minyan people was a writer for an Israeli newspaper, and promised the steward that if given permission, he would write a glowing article about El AL.

Someone asked if anyone knew how to read the Torah, so I volunteered. It happened to be this week’s parasha: `eiqev. As I came to the last few verses, I was overcome with emotion:  I’m thinking to myself:  here we are, just about to land in Israel and I am reading: “For HaShem your G-d is bringing you to a good land ...a land of wheat and barley and figs and pomegranates and olives and dates .. a land where you will not be lacking anything...and you will eat and be satisfied, and bless HaShem your G-d for the good land which He has given you.”

 Reading these words, and realizing that the plane was pointed to that very land described in that passage, and that I was about to arrive with my wife a”h and children in that very land, I was overcome with emotion. Indeed, the reporter who was on that flight, did fulfill his promise, and wrote how I read those words with “great emotion.”

 May HaShem watch over the Land and its inhabitants, bring them comfort, and protect them from their enemies.

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This week we read the 2nd of the 7 haftarot of consolation, taken from Isaiah. 

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On Sunday, 21 Av, Simcha Foxman observes yahrzeit for his father Yehudah. The kiddush this Shabbat is sponsored by Shulamis and Simcha Foxman in memory of her mother, Rabbetzin Aliza Singer, and his father. 

Shabbat shalom, ve-shalom `al Yisrael, Rabbi Menahem White