HEBREW TEXTS  .  HEBREW LANGUAGE  .  JUDAISM

What an incredibly beautiful and exhausting community month we have had. I feel the enormous need to remember it with all of you. I want to start by recalling the celebration of Yom Ha'atzmaut that we enjoyed on May 19 at the Capitol Theatre in Rome.

Imagine that, while searching for a book in the library, you come across a unique book at catches your attention because your family name is written on the spine. Intrigued, you open it and see many pages written by different hands in many languages. You start reading it, and gradually you begin to understand what it is. It is the story that each generation of your ancestors has told for the sake of the next, so everyone born into this family knows where they came from, what happened to them, what they lived for, and why.

Blessed is the match that is consumed in kindling flame.
Blessed is the flame that burns in the secret fastness of the heart.
Blessed is the heart with wisdom to stop its beating for honor's sake ...
Blessed is the match that is consumed in kindling flame.

By the time you receive this new edition of the Temple Times, Nisan, the month of Pesach, the month of freedom, will be just a few days away from starting. It's inevitable to enter Nisan and not think about Pesach, to start reflecting on our freedoms and our slaveries.

What happened in the second half of 1947 and during 1948 is complicated to narrate. David Ben Gurion is accused of having a strategic plan to expel Arabs from villages in Galilee in the north and around the Arab city of Lod in the center. They were to drive out the Arabs from Galilee and overcome the Syrian and Lebanese forces invading Galilee. Conquer Galilee, cleanse Galilee, defend Galilee. Ensure that Galilee becomes Jewish.

In the 1850s, a new variety of orange was discovered in the citrus orchards of Jaffa, and by 1890, the new Shamouti orange—large, oval, and juicy—had made its way to Queen Victoria's table. The colony of Rehovot discovered the virtues of citrus in the 1920s. Rehovot was founded in 1890 on 10,600 dunams of the Ottoman feudal state of Duran, located approximately 24 kilometers southeast of Jaffa.

When we were kids, we learned about the People of Israel, the conquest of Canaan, and the declaration of the State of Israel and its pioneers. It is very likely that the early European migrants, much like our heroes from the Torah, omitted certain passages from these stories that weren't suitable for children who were meant to grow up with love for the Promised Land, its history, and its heroes.

Once again, I must begin my article in the Temple Times with images of an event I witnessed, just as it happened with last month's and the one before. What I experienced this week in Washington D.C. was so immensely significant that it will be challenging to describe it solely in written words.

Once again, vivid memories flood my mind as I write for the Temple Times. Almost all beautiful memories, like those we experienced during the rally at the JCC, praying, crying, and singing together for Israel, for those families waiting to hear news about their kidnapped loved ones, for the wounded, for those who lost their lives. We prayed, sang, and cried for the unfortunate confirmation that almost 20 years of avoiding a larger-scale war conflict were in vain. In all those years, Israel did not manage to live in peace, and lives were lost, their sacrifices failing to lead us to peace.

Members of Temple Beth El of Utica strongly condemn the savage attacks carried out by extremist fanatics from the terrorist organization Hamas against both military and civilian populations in Israel.

I am writing these lines as the melodies and words of the prayers of Yamim Noraim (High Holy Days) confront our conscience with the possibility of improving our future through the self-reflection that is still resonating in our heads, bodies, and souls.

I still have the images in my mind of the beautiful celebration at Temple Beth El for my rabbinical ordination.

Interestingly, what impacts me the most in those images is not only the affection, care, love, and respect I received that night from people with all different convictions within our Jewish community in Utica and its surroundings, as well as from so many non-Jewish people who hold a special place in my heart, but also the fact that we were all celebrating together, regardless of the differences in ideology, beliefs, interpretations of the law or rituals that we might have.