“Give this to a holy Jew, someone in Israel who would know what it is,” his father requested on his deathbed. The German parliamentarian handed the wallet to Dotan. Inscribed on the parchment were the words from parshat Ki Tavo, the paragraph known as the tochacha, warning Israel of destruction and disease that would befall the nation if the words of Hashem were not heeded.
Last Tuesday a book was unearthed in Ireland. It was inside a bag that had helped preserve it from disintegrating. Archeologists assess that it is from the year 1000, and believe it may be the oldest Latin script in their possession. The book was open to Tehillim 84, which declares that even “those who pass through a valley of thorns, weeping, they transform it into a wellspringThey advance from strength to strength.”
These two recent finds are reminiscent of the Sefer Torah found in the days of the righteous King Yoshiyahu, the grandson of King Menashe the idol worshipper. Menashe demanded that every Sefer Torah in the heichal be destroyed. One of the kohanim secretly hid one last Sefer Torah in the Mikdash. During the reign of his grandson Yoshiyahu a teshuvah movement was launched, the Mikdash was renovated, and the hidden Sefer was found opened to parshat Ki Tavo, containing blessings followed by thetochacha, the warning of curses that would befall the nation if it did not live according to the will of God.
It was not a coincidence that Yoshiyahu found the Torah open to the tochacha, just as it’s no coincidence that Rabbi Grossman received the parchment with the words of the tochacha from a German, or that a book open to Tehillim 84 was found in Ireland last Tuesday. The meaning of these strange events is concealed but surely there is some connection to the Jewish nation having returned to its land.
Tuesday, August 1 – Continuous rocket fire on civilians. As the war moves into a third week of heavy fighting, Israelis in Jerusalem and the center of the country have opened their homes and hearts to over 30,000 refugees. With assistance from the Jewish world we are reaching out, trying to help those who have remained in shelters in their towns and cities.
Israel needs “convergence,” but not the kind Olmert spoke of today that caused cracks in the unity of our people. We need convergence of charitable acts, of kindness, of faith, of implementation of Tehillim 83 and 84 and only the blessings proffered in Parshat Ki Tavo.
Thursday, Tisha b’Av, August 3 At 5 p.m. – I joined the mourners on Mount Herzl at the funeral of Staff Sergeant Michael Levin, an American who returned hastily from a visit to his parents in Philadelphia to serve with his unit. Killed on Tuesday in South Lebanon, Michael was a chayal boded, a lone soldier whose family lived abroad, and thousands streamed to the funeral despite the hot sun and the fact that most were fasting.
An AP reporter stood next to my friend Rachel and asked why she would come to a funeral of someone she didn’t know.
“I told him that this boy was part of my heart and soul, that he fought and died for me, that it was a mitzvah for every Jew to accompany his fellow Jew to his final resting place, and that it was the very least I could do to show my appreciation, love and sorrow to Michael and his parents. Each one of Michael’s friends and colleagues who spoke brought me closer to personally knowing Michael.”
“Al eileh ani bochiyah, einie, einie yordah mayim” – Yirmiyahu’s words of lamentation. “Over these do I weep; my eye continuously runs with water because comfort to restore my soul is far from me.”
Motzei Shabbat Nachamu – Comfort is not forthcoming. Another five soldiers killed, and long-range rocket fire reached as far south as Hadera. A Carlebach concert presented tonight by the Jerusalem Municipality had Chezkie Sofer singing with a voice so eerily similar to Shlomo’s. A reminder. Am Yisrael Chai.
Monday August 7 – “Od avinu chai.” Our Father is alive, our nation is alive and we seek His mercy in these tragedy-filled days. Kfar Giladi and Haifa suffered a new round of destruction yesterday – 12 soldiers and 3 civilians killed, more than 200 wounded, many houses destroyed. A beautiful shul hit directly, glass shattered, furnishings destroyed, but the holy ark and all the Torah scrolls remained perfectly intact.