Unmixed Feelings...
Words of Wisdom with Rabbi Efrat Zarren-Zohar
This week’s Dvar Torah was written or compiled by Rabbi Efrat Zarren-Zohar and is dedicated in memory of all those who fought and died to recover the hostages, may they have a refuah shleimah of body and spirit. We especially remember the son of Hagai Luber, author of the poem below, Staff Sergeant Elisha Yonatan z”l, who fell in battle in December 2023, and for my nephew, Major Shachar Netanel Bozaglo, who fell in battle Erev Rosh Hashana this year.
Image from https://www.timesofisrael.com/all-20-remaining-living-hostages-return-to-israel-after-over-2-years-in-hamas-captivity/
When I read the news that the hostages had indeed been released as planned, I shed tears of relief, tears of joy, tears of sorrow for those who were lost, so many tears filled with such a mix of intense emotions.
The co-mingling of joy and sorrow is a leitmotif in Jewish life. From breaking a glass under the chuppah to Monday’s release of the hostages, we Jews live with a mix of complex emotions at the heights of our happiness and the depths of our despair.
Hagai Luber, whose son made the ultimate sacrifice for the Jewish people, in the poem he wrote below, invites us to reflect on a complex reality where joy and grief coexist, and each moment presents emotional and ethical choices.
May this be a new beginning (a kind of Bereisheet or Genesis) for the hostages and their families, the people of Israel, and the Jewish people around the world.
A big “Todah Rabbah/ Thank You” to the iCenter for the translation below.
With Unmixed Feelings
by Hagai Luber
And as on the birthday of Yonatan, my beloved son, who was killed.
My feelings are not mixed, and within me there is no contradiction of laughter and tears.
For the fact of his death does not diminish the joy of his birth.
And the joy of his birth does not lessen the pain of his death.
For we have — all of us — a wondrous capacity: to rejoice fully in what we have, and to grieve without limit for what we have lost.
And therefore, the images of released hostages will fill our hearts only with happiness, joy, and elation: Overjoyed to see them freed from the vile hands of their killers.
We will accompany with gladness their first steps on safe and embracing ground.
Tears of hope will flow at the sight of the first, endless embrace of a beloved family.
And for the fallen, there will be a resting place in the bosom of the good earth.
And other images will fill our hearts with pain, anger, fear, and worry:
We will ache at the sight of cruel murderers — worthy of death — walking free and celebrating.
We will ache at the sight of our soldiers retreating, loosening the belt of defense.
We will be filled with rage as our flag is folded above launch positions and tunnel openings conquered with the blood of our beloved sons.
We will worry deeply about the inspiration these celebrations of “victory” and “the success of the abduction” may give to future murderers.
We will fear profoundly for the future and worry for lives that may yet be cut short.
And the fear will not overshadow the joy.
And the joy will not diminish the fear.
And our hands will open for a soft embrace.
And our hands will clench into a hard fist.
And our hearts will contain both.
And we will rise, and act, and do good from within the pain, from the strength of the joy.
