Walking In The Valley

As I was leaving the Western Wall recently, after evening prayers, I suddenly saw a group of young women students of one of the Ulpanot/ religious high schools burst unto the Kotel plaza. They were all wearing white sweatshirts and some were carrying Israeli flags , while others were draped with the flags. They exploded into singing and dancing. In essence they were whirling and jumping seemingly driven by some inner passion and joy. They seemed like starving wanderers who had finally reached an oasis filled with sparkling life giving waters.

In fact that is exactly what they were.

They had just returned from the wasteland of Europe, visiting the concentration camps and the historic Jewish communities that were no more. Nothing could contain their joy at that moment.


Several weeks later I was walking by the ancient Cardo Street in the old city, I saw some students from another school sitting and singing spiritual songs amidst the ancient pillars. Suddenly another group wearing different colored sweatshirts came running through the narrow entrance into the Cardo plaza and the two groups merged together with shrieks and hugs. The same scene that I had witnessed so many times at the Kotel plaza with other groups of Yeshiva boys and Ulpana girls was recreated as they burst into song and dance as well

Upon investigation I learned that the first group in the Cardo had been half the class that had decided to travel the length and breadth of the land of Israel. Their journey culminated in the old city of Jerusalem. The second group was the other half who had decided to make the trip to visit the destroyed synagogues and the death camps in Poland. They met together in the center of the world, in the Old city of Jerusalem.


In this world G-d speaks in images.

One needs to learn how to listen with one's eyes. There was great comfort in the images I was seeing. In a world of uncertainty and confusion certain images and metaphors stand as an anchor in seas raging with concern and doubt.


My son recently led a group of students from Yeshivat HaKotel to a trip through Poland and Austria. As the group stood in front of the horrific memorial in the death camp of Maidanek he handed every one of the students a page with the prophecy of Ezekiel printed out on it. The memorial in Maidanek is a small mountain of ashes and bones culled from the crematoriums that attempted to burn and destroy the memory of the Jewish people. A mountain of pain and hopelessness.


Ezekiel says in chapter 37;

1 The hand of HaShem was upon me, and HaShem carried me out in a spirit, and set me down in the midst of the valley, and it was full of bones; …… 5 Thus said HaShem G-D unto these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live. 6 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am HaShem.' …. ….. 11 Then He said unto me: 'Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel; behold, they say: Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are clean cut off. 12 Therefore prophesy, and say unto them: Thus said HaShem G-D: Behold, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, O My people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel. 13 And ye shall know that I am HaShem, when I have opened your graves, and caused you to come up out of your graves, O My people. 14 And I will put My spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I will place you in your own land; and ye shall know that I HaShem have spoken, and performed it, said HaShem.'


My son then said to his students, these are the dry bones and you, the young people learning torah in Israel are the fulfillment of the end.


Interesting thoughts to ponder as we watch our frantic Prime Minister trying to promote a suicidal peace negotiation. This , being done either out of vengeance or out of desperation. These thoughts will be the anchor when other ministers in the government mount a hate campaign against young Jewish settlers and residents of the Biblical Heartland. It will bring some comfort when even in the nation that has proven to be a great friend of Israel in the past is experiencing new and dangerous changes.

The process of Destiny continues in spite of the small efforts of men to deter it