During the time we were in the United States, I saw how much American Jews are attached to Israel. They dedicate prayers, Psalms and good deeds to us. Time and again they announced that a prayer is “for the Land of Israel” or “for someone in Israel.” Here is an opportunity to feel their pulse for a moment, to attach ourselves to them.
Liel Namdar, a”h, a 15-year-old girl from New York, was killed in a traffic accident on December 11. The Five Towns and Great Neck communities are in mourning. Liel was a friend of my daughter and they learned together in the TAG school. Liel was returning from New York after spending Shabbat with campers she knew from Sternberg summer camp when the car of a drunk driver, who was living illegally in the United States, crashed into the car in which she and her friends were riding.
Her funeral took place here in Jerusalem. The American community in Jerusalem came to Har Hamenuchot late at night in great numbers, including hundreds of teenage girls and boys who came here to study for the year.
Ever since the funeral, thousands of people began to perform wonderful deeds in her memory – from distributing Shabbat candles and challahs throughout New York City to holding large havdalah gatherings for passersby in Jewish neighborhoods.
Two stories about Liel accompany us this week. Both come from the last moments of her life:
At the end of the gathering with her friends, before the girls got into the car, rain started to fall. All the girls went back indoors or covered themselves snugly in their coats. Only Liel pulled two friends outside and said to them: “Let’s dance in the rain!” This was her last video, dancing in the rain with friends, joyful as always, making the most of the moment.
In the last text that she sent, just seconds before the accident, she wrote to a friend as follows: “Could you remind me to say ‘Shema Yisrael’ this evening?” Her friends later said that Liel always remembered to say it. This was her way of reminding the friend to say the Shema without insulting her.
May Effi and Maya and Liel’s siblings – Natalie, Emmanuel, and Yinon – be consoled from Jerusalem, with wishes for only good news to come.
The Most Played Song in Israel
How would you summarize the civil year as it comes to an end? These are the days of year-end reviews and we will surely start hearing about our blunders. And there certainly were – from the handling of coronavirus restrictions to politics, from stories of corruption, abuse and exploitation to catastrophic disasters and terrorist attacks. Yet despite all this, yesterday we learned something that reminds us what is deeply hidden in all that happened this year.
ACUM (Society of Authors, Composers, and Music Publishers) published the finding that the song played the most in Israel this year was “Sibat HaSibot” (Cause of all Causes) by Yishay Ribo. This is the most played song on all the Israeli radio stations (not including what was played via online streaming).
It appears that the gap between the news and our personal playlist was never so large, but it seems that it’s our playlist that is making the real headlines.
Here are the words of the most popular song in Israel this year (translated by Moshe Kaye):
Return my soul to me, remove the rain from me
I had a sea of time to relax, I got used to it a bit actually
and in the wide open space, we can see the sun on the horizon
no doubt I’m sure, at the end the path will be clear
Just open for us
the gates of faith, the gates of understanding
that we don’t have any king …
Other than You
Creator of the universe, cause of all causes
awe-inspiring glory
and only to You is it proper to thank, for all the days and nights
We came out of Noah’s Ark, to a different reality
redeem the prisoners of power and those trapped in the net
also to accept the black and white, with all the colors of the rainbow
favored are people created in G-d’s image (Avot, Chapter Gimel)
Just open for us
the gates of containment, the gates of the beginning
since we don’t have any other king …
Other than You
Creator of the universe, cause of all causes
hears prayers
and only to You
is it proper to thank, for all the days and nights.
(Article translation by Yehoshua Siskin)