Since Sunday and the murder of our six hostages, we feel an added heaviness. We are still stuck in the war, in our inability to bring home the hostages, or return the evacuees to normal life, or to secure our borders. And then we have demonstrations and strikes. My feeling today is that we are collectively stuck. Deeply stuck.
Maybe it is an appropriate mood for Rosh Chodesh Elul. We have so much to fix.
So after participating in a faculty meeting to plan for a new year, I headed to the shuk. I needed to restock on coffee beans, and I figured that it might cheer me up a little.
At my favorite coffee roaster – Shuk Café – a yeshiva student from the Mir, the coffee salesman and I all got into a great, detailed discussion about making fresh coffee on Shabbat: filter coffee and French press, kli shlishi and borer (a third-degree cup and sorting on Shabbat).
I purchased my artisan sourdough bread from Lechem Be’eri, a Jerusalem-based bakery but the name is still evocative, and then headed to Tshounna, which has the best pickles and olives in the shuk. I told the man behind the counter: “This is the first time I have ever been here and not stood in a line.” He said: “Well maybe you’ll bring me some luck – and you’ll start the line for today.” Sure enough, by the time he had served me, two or three people had lined up behind me! As I left he said: “Won’t you stay for a while?” I asked him why. He motioned to the line as if to tell me that I was his lucky charm! I love the people of Machane Yehuda!
And then on to Cohen’s to buy some herring for kiddush on Shabbat. I love Mr. Cohen. He is a wonderful unassuming religious man with a shy smile, who must be in his seventies and still runs his store every day. I once asked him why he doesn’t get some help in the store. He told me proudly: “I do have help! I work here in the mornings while my sons – they are all ramim (Talmud teachers) in local yeshivot – work. In the afternoon, they come and join me in the store until closing time.” He couldn’t have been prouder.
He is a salt-of-the earth Jew, one who seems to me to have the wisdom of years. So I asked him: “How are we going to pray this Elul? How do we approach the Yamim Nora’im? There is so much pain!” And he responded: “We’re going to pray like every other year!” “Really?” I asked incredulously, hoping to receive a gem of wisdom; and he said: “You know, we have many problems and challenges, but if it wasn’t for G-d’s protection and assistance, there would be nothing here – nothing! Our enemies would destroy every last inch! We have so much to be thankful for. As Am Yisrael, we need to recognize that!”
I returned to my car, and whereas the beautiful Jerusalem streets generally lift my mood, today walking the streets and having my eyes focus upon “Free Hersh” stickers on every second lamppost just made me sigh! Merciful One, who answers the broken-hearted, please answer us!
Rosh Chodesh Elul 5784. Yes! So much to be thankful for. “Hodu Lashem ki tov”! And yet, just so much heartache and pain. “Ana Hashem, hoshe’ah na”!
