Skip to main content

בַּיָּמִים הָהֵם בִּזְּמַן הַזֶּה:

 The title for this post is a phrase familiar to Jews who are used to praying daily.  for those who don't fall into that category

עַל הַנִּסִּים וְעַל הַפֻּרְקָן וְעַל הַגְּבוּרות וְעַל הַתְּשׁוּעות וְעַל הַמִּלְחָמות שֶׁעָשיתָ לַאֲבותֵינוּ בַּיָּמִים הָהֵם בִּזְּמַן הַזֶּה:

for the miracles and the saving and the great brave deeds and the victories and the wars which You performed for our ancestors in those days at this time of year--(but I could argue that it can also read and now --at this historical moment as well.)


We recite this introduction to a longer prayer at Chanukah and also on Purim. 



On Purim of 1991 Iraq was at war with the United States. For a periods of several weeks Iraq  sent a nightly barrage of Scud missiles into Israel. Every night just in time for the 11:00 pm news in New York we watched missiles raining down on Israel with Iraq additionally promising to send missiles with poison gas. We heard from family and friends huddled in sealed rooms all wearing gas masks. The assault on Israel ended on Purim.

The Israeli rabbinate today forbade anyone in Israel from going to public megillah readings because the obligation to protect your life is bigger than the obligation to hear the megillah in a minyan a quorum of people. My cousins in Israel send me a sweet video of their at home reading with their boys booing the names of Haman's sons as their father read the names.


The video was sweet and funny and at the same time deeply sad.

A little over a week ago our son who is living in Amarillo, the same son who we were visiting on October 7, 2023 called us to tell us that there were wildfires in his area and he might have to evacuate. That night he had a night terror that he was in a resort hotel and was awakened by bombing. He was a world away from Ashkelon but the thread of danger and evacuation put him right back into those days in the safe room.

בַּיָּמִים הָהֵם בִּזְּמַן הַזֶּה

The terror of long ago,(actually not that long ago) felt now.

As I read the news from Israel, checking in with my friend in Bet Shemesh where a missile made a direct hit I am both here in New York and in my son's safe room.


I am in two places in two


moments of time





at the same time.




בַּיָּמִים הָהֵם בִּזְּמַן הַזֶּה



So tonight I go to services to hear the megillah not just as myself but also as the representative of my dear ones in Israel who can't do it in public tonight.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

I love hearing from my readers. I moderate comments to weed out bots.It may take a little while for your comment to appear.

Popular posts from this blog

מְחַיֵּה הַמֵּתִים

  וְנֶאֱמָן אַתָּה לְהַחֲיוֹת מֵתִים: בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְהֹוָה מְחַיֵּה הַמֵּתִים   You are faithful to restore the dead to life. Blessed are You, Adonoy, Resurrector of the dead. That particular line is recited at every single prayer service every day three times a day, unless you use a Reform or Reconstructionist prayer book . In those liturgies instead of praising God for resurrecting the dead God is praised for  giving life to all.  I am enough of a modern woman, a modern thinker, to not actually believe in the actual resurrection of the dead. I don't actually expect all of the residents of the Workmen's Circle section of  Mount Hebron cemetery in Queens to get up and get back to work at their sewing machines. I don't expect the young children buried here or  the babies buried here to one day get up and frolic. Yet, every single time I get up to lead services I say those words about the reanimating of the dead with every fiber of my being. Yesterday, I e...
2 comments
Read more

Connecting with the past

A few months ago I had a craving for my father’s chicken fricassee.  If my father were still alive I would have called him up and he would have talked me through the process of making it.    My father is no longer alive so I turned to my cookbooks and the recipes I found for chicken fricassee were nothing at all like the stew of chicken necks, gizzards and wings in a watery sweet and sour tomato sauce that I enjoyed as a kid.  I assumed that the dish was an invention of my father’s. I then attempted to replicate the dish from my memory of it and failed.   A couple of weeks ago I saw an article on the internet, and I can’t remember where, that talked about Jewish fricassee  and it sounded an awful lot like the dish I was hankering after. This afternoon I went to the butcher and picked up all of the chicken elements of the dish, a couple of packages each of wings, necks and gizzards. My father never cooked directly from a cook book. He used to re...
3 comments
Read more

The light themed tallit has been shipped!!!

 I had begun speaking to Sarah about making her a tallit in the middle of August. It took a few weeks to nail down the design. For Sarah it would have been ideal if the tallit were completed in time for her to wear it on Rosh HaShanah., the beginning of her year as senior rabbi of her congregation. For me, in an ideal world, given the realities of preparing for the High Holidays I would have finished this tallit in the weeks after Sukkot. So we compromised and I shipped off the tallit last night.  I would have prefered to have more time but I got the job done in time. This tallit was made to mark Sarah's rise to the position of senior rabbi but it was also a reaction to this year of darkness. She chose a selection of verses about light to be part of her tallit. 1)  אֵל נוֹרָא עֲלִילָה  God of awesome deeds ( from a yom kippur Liturgical poem) 2)  אוֹר חָדָשׁ עַל־צִיּוֹן תָּאִיר   May You shine a new light on Zion ( from the liturgy) 3)  יָאֵר יְהֹ...
9 comments
Read more