Reflections On My Mission To Israel: Day 1 – January 22, 2024

Thank you to all who helped contribute to this effort to support our soldiers. With your help I was able to donate close to 90 pounds of supplies on behalf of the community, which was roughly $3k of much needed items, as well as monetary donations. While every trip to Israel is meaningful, this felt especially so. It wasn’t just a visit or supporting the economy, but it was, in essence, a pastoral call. There is something sacred about being there for those who are hurting. We are taught in the Talmud that a person who visits one who is ill takes away 1/60th of their pain. This was why we chose to be there to listen to, hold on to, and be present for our brothers and sisters, especially now, when the pain is so intense. As a Jewish people, this is just what we do. We sit with our loved ones in times of hope and sorrow.

Let me begin by offering a bit of background about this trip. We were a group of 7 rabbis (5 Reform, 2 Conservative) from the Midwest, including Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin. We traveled with a fabulous tour guide, Beni, who had a relationship with my friend and colleague Rabbi Dan Schwartz, who gathered this group together. Because there were only 8 of us, we were able to travel lightly, in a small van and not a bus, allowing us to experience even more than a usual group trip would afford us. It was especially meaningful to be there with Beni, who was an Israeli citizen, born in Russia. He had been in the United States travelling for four months before returning to Israel 13 days before our trip began. He would be experiencing these visits as a first timer, as well, and had planned the trip from his own place of curiosity. He, himself, had lost several friends and colleagues on October 7th and in the days since then with the war.
Many of you know that my relationship with Israel runs deep. The first time my feet touched the ground b’Aretz was in 1992, with the March of the Living. Even back then I knew that a week was not nearly enough time to spend in Israel. I swore to return to Israel during my junior year of college and hopefully again for rabbinic school. My experience living in Jerusalem in 1995-1996 was tumultuous. That junior year of college was the year in which I fell in love with Israel but, unfortunately, this meant sharing in the pain when the country was hurting. I lived there during the assassination of PM Yitzchak Rabin, as well as the barrage of suicide bombings that followed after the Oslo Accords. Having come way too close to bus bombings and other terrorist events, I eventually succumbed to the intense fear of living in danger and left Israel a few months earlier than planned. Though I knew it was what I needed at the time, I never forgave myself for leaving my country in her time of need. I was grateful when I returned a year later for my rabbinic studies and have returned many more times, including a mission trip with Cincinnati in December of 2001.

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