Unlike R. Elazar ben Azaria who said, “Today I am like a man of seventy” when he was only seventeen, today, I am seventy for real, although, frankly, I still feel like a lad of seventeen.
October 7, 2024 marks my 70th birthday. Like thousands of other Israelis (and Vladimir Putin), I was born on the day of the most holocaust-like event in the history of the Jews in the Land of Israel. But for me, it’s more complicated.
October 7, 1954, when I was born, fell on Yom Kippur, 5715.
As you know, every 19 years the common and Hebrew years are reset, and indeed, my 19th birthday fell on Yom Kippur, October 7… 1973. I was serving in the Nahal (in Tzevet Havai Nahal, the Nahal entertainment band) when the Egyptians crossed the Suez Canal.
I got the news Friday night from a friend who was an officer in Golani’s 13th Battalion, put on my uniform and hours later was seated in a VW van that was confiscated by the army from its owner, on the way to Sinai, to appear before our soldiers. I told jokes throughout the war. I even crossed the Suez Canal with Arik Sharon.
So, this was my 19th birthday present: the Yom Kippur War, which at the time was the most holocaust-like event since the establishment of the state.
I have never celebrated my birthday on Yom Kippur, mainly because it is strictly forbidden to bring cakes with burning candles into the synagogue on the sacred day. That’s why all my life we celebrated my birthday on October 7. And indeed, a year ago, on Shabbat Simchat Torah, my daughter and I planned a modest event for my 69th birthday, on October 7.
The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men / Gang aft agley, / An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain, / For promis’d joy!
Robert Burns wrote his poem “To a Mouse” in November 1785, after his plow had turned up a nest of mice in his field. Isn’t it amazing how an entire nation felt like those poor mice on October 7, 2023?
Now I already know that I cannot celebrate my 70th birthday either on Yom Kippur, because of the issur on cake, or on October 7, because my country is in tears, and that’s it. So many Israelis have suffered this past 12 months, my loss of both my birthdays is petty in comparison. I’m the proverbial Karen demanding to see the cosmic manager.
So, no complaining.
I mentioned above that Russian President Vladimir Putin was born on October 7 (1952). Cellist Yo Yo Ma was born on October 7, 1955. Jewish-Danish physicist Niels Bohr was born on October 7, 1885. Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad – October 7, 1897. Heinrich Himmler– October 7, 1900. Bishop Desmond Tutu – October 7, 1931. Singer-songwriter John Mellencamp – October 7, 1951.
There are many more, obviously, but my purpose here is not to bore you but to show that my birthday is equally divided between gifted artists and criminals.
That’s it. Tomorrow this will all be over and I’ll start my private countdown to the next milestone, hoping to get there by consuming copious amounts of green, leafy vegetables and avoiding carbs and sugar.
Mildly content birthday wishes to one and all.
