Shabbat shalom
Today is day 582 – and so it is a day of complex emotions.
Without exaggeration, I have constantly dreamt of this moment since we visited Kfar Aza in January last year and we are so so grateful to Hashem that Emily is free and here – but at the same time we think of Gali and Ziv and all the other hostages – and just as we prayed for Emily so too we pray for them to return to their families bimheira b’yameinu – Amen.
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On Rosh Hashanah, when Mandy was last here, I spoke about three women in history who cried, and whose tears we remember on Rosh Hashanah. This culminated with the tears of our matriarch Rachel, the tears of hope through which the Midrash tells us that Hashem is going to redeem His people and whose kever, whose grave, so many of us went to pray at on Motzei Shabbat 17 January, the night before Emily was released.
I quoted then, and I will repeat now, Hashem’s answer to Rachel as recorded by the prophet Jeremiah:
מִנְעִי קוֹלֵךְ מִבֶּכִי וְעֵינַיִךְ מִדִּמְעָה
refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears,
כִּי֩ יֵ֨שׁ שָׂכָ֤ר לִפְעֻלָּתֵךְ֙ נְאֻם־ה
for your work shall be rewarded, says the Lord,
וְשָׁ֖בוּ מֵאֶ֥רֶץ אוֹיֵֽב
and your children shall come back from the land of the enemy;
וְיֵשׁ־תִּקְוָ֥ה לְאַחֲרִיתֵ֖ךְ נְאֻם־ה’ וְשָׁ֥בוּ בָנִ֖ים לִגְבוּלָֽם
and there is hope for your future, says the Lord, your children shall return home. Your children shall return home.
Welcome home Emily!
(There was a standing ovation for Emily)
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And just as I spoke about three women on Rosh Hashanah, I want to speak about three women today.
The first woman, is actually a group of women.
Led locally by our Rebbetzen Shuli and by our co-chair Natalie, and more widely by our CEO Jo Grose who made the connection with Mandy in the first place and by the indefatigable Emily Cohen, this group of women, is all of you and so many others across the community, who haven’t stopped praying, advocating, leading, supporting others and pushing everyone to keep going. Never giving up. Thank you!
Our sages tell us that “in the merit of the righteous women our ancestors were redeemed from Egypt.” It was the women who never despaired of Hashem’s redemption.
After the sea split at the ‘Yam Suf’, both the men and the women sang songs of praise to Hashem.
However, from the Torah’s description of the episode, it is clear that only the women’s song was accompanied by musical instruments.
Why is that?
The Midrash explains that the women, even while they were still in Egypt, were so confident that they would be redeemed, that they prepared tambourines for the day when they would sing a song of thanks for their redemption!
And just as then it was in the merit of the women’s faith that the Jewish people were redeemed, so too, the Arizal, the master Kabbalist says, it will be in the merit of the righteous women of our generation, and their unwavering belief in the Redemption, that we will be redeemed once again. Please keep going!
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The second woman is Mandy.
On Rosh Hashanah, I described you as the bravest and strongest woman that we know.
Your love for Emily, if I may quote you “to the moon and back”, inspired us all.
Your pain for all those murdered in Kfar Aza, so many of whom you taught in kindergarten, was a real lesson in care and compassion.
Your strength of character, enabled you to challenge the Prime Minister to do more and then demand more action from us all
And your mastery of British understatement, is legendary.
On the Friday before the first set of hostages were released in January, when you didn’t yet know if Emily was on the list, you were asked how you are feeling, and you responded – things are a little tense.
King Solomon says in the famous Eishet Chayil text – in a verse we can easily associate with you:
עוז והדר לבושה
She is clothed with strength and dignity
ותשחק ליום אחרון
She can laugh at the days to come. And BH – now we can see you smile and laugh.
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And then we come to the third woman, Emily.
As Rabbi Zvi Hersh Weinreb recounts, the great chazzan, Yossele Rosenblatt, recommended Shir Hamaalos Beshuv Hashem, Psalm 126, which we sing at the beginning of benching, to be the national anthem of the State of Israel. He popularised a stirring melody for it, composed by Pinchas Minkowski, which expresses its theme dramatically, and one which is suitable as an anthem for a redeemed nation.
Its opening words are so striking today: When Hashem brings back Zion’s exiles, we were like dreamers.
What a potent image: we were like dreamers
Rav Kook, the first Chief Rabbi of British Mandatory Palestine, writes that the realm of the dream is the ideal realm. What we refer to as the “real world” is bereft of dreams, and as such is a diminished and contaminated world.
He points out that the best of humanity regularly dream. Prophets dream, poets dream, and, in our psalm, the returned captives of Zion dream.
Ordinary life “removes from the world the light of the dream.” Paradoxically, the dream is the ultimate reality, the ground of true existence.
For Rav Kook, the message of our psalm is this: During our long and tragic exile our capacity to dream was lost. With the redemption, that capacity is restored.
The psalm goes on to say a few verses later:
הזורעים בדמעה ברנה יקצורו
– one who sows the seeds of hope with these tears will reap a harvest of joy, of happiness, of unending blessing. And today we are crying tears of joy.
The tears of exile become songs of joy because of the transformative powers of the dream.
Emily – you have taught us to dream, to pray and to have faith. We believed in you and dreamt of you returning and sitting in your seat – and now we dream of your potential, what you can achieve in your future – which will B’Ezrat Hashem be incredible!
We heard stories from Agam Goldstein-Almog how you used to look after the other hostages who were being held with you.
We heard stories of how you refused to each non-kosher food in captivity as a sign of defiance and one of Jewish pride.
And we heard stories of you begging your captors to allow Keith Segal to go free instead of you.
And just yesterday you told us how you felt Hashem holding you through your captivity.
What strength, what faith and what leadership.
There is a reason so many people are here today – and that is because you are a role model, a beacon of light and an inspiration to us all
The world is so broken – but you and Romi and Agam and Agam Berger and Eli Sharabi – and Gali and Ziv – can heal the world.
Thank you for honouring us with your presence. And thank you for showing the world joy despite all you have experienced.
In a few minutes we will be privileged to hear from you, but before that, as I announced on Rosh Hashanah it is my incredible privilege to ask you to please stand for the bravest and strongest person I know, Mandy Damari – but this time it is not with tears of hope that we greet you, but with tears of joy.
Shabbat Shalom
