The Jewish Holiday of Passover is called in Jewish Liturgy “Zman Heruteinu” – “Time of Our Freedom”. 

In Hebrew there are several words for Freedom, and their meaning is slightly different. There is a word “Hofesh”, that describes physical freedom, and is used in Torah in the description of the slave that goes free at the end of six years, accordingly to the Jewish Law. The word “Herut”, associated with Passover, is a different type of Freedom – freedom of spiritual nature, freedom of the soul that knows its truth and is not affected by external ideologies. 

As pointed out by our Sages, there is a close connection between the word ‘Herut” as Freedom to the same word used in The Scripture in the description of giving of the Torah – the Word of G-d being engraved (“Herut”) on the Tablets. Another linguistic connection ( pointed out by the famous 12 century commentator Rashi) is that of “Herut” in its meaning of Engraving  – being a synonym for another term for Engraving – “Hikuk” – which in its turn has the same root as “Hok” , which denotes a category of Divine Laws that have no rational explanation – a Mystery.

All these linguistic connotations bring out an idea of Divine truth being engraved, imprinted in the nature, and in our souls as well. Accordingly, the Freedom of Passover is a freedom to be attentive to this deep truth, which is imprinted on our souls, and which is the truth of the Torah. To be sure, the liberation from the slavery of Egypt was also a physical liberation, but the final goal was always a spiritual freedom, described by the word “Herut”.

Living in Israel, the week of Passover Is a Holiday week, and many people go to the nature reserves and parks. We too spent several days hiking on the mountain trails, and found it to be the best way to experience the harmony between the Divine Truth and Mystery engraved in the nature and that of our souls. During this week, you don’t even want to look at the world news, which always brings you back to all the falsehood…

Of course, the process of the inner liberation does not happen overnight, and not even in one week. In Jewish tradition, Passover is a starting point of the 50 days period, at the end of which we arrive to Shavuot – Holiday of giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai to the Jewish people. During these 50 days ( called days of “Sephirat Ha Omer”) we work on ourselves, peeling layer by layer everything that is un-authentic, anything related to foreign ideologies and influences, hoping that at the end of this cycle we’ll be truly free to receive Torah.

 This is a period of introspection, and it brings memories of all the previous miracles of liberation in our life.

In my case, I experienced a celebration of Passover in Russia in mid-1980s, with more than 100 people having Passover Seder together in a small Moscow apartment, and miraculously there was enough room for everybody. Late into the night we talked about how Russia of that time period resembled Egypt, and we felt presence of G-d there during our Seder. It was a first experience of spiritual freedom, shaking off all the communist brainwashing I received in school and College. But it was only a beginning of the long transformation, which continued after I emigrated to the US, when it was still a relatively free country, and of which the logical result was our Alyah three years ago to the real home of Jewish people – the Land of Israel.

Now, watching the moral and cultural decline in America, we only can pray for the Jews not to be affected by it, and to have Divine assistance in finding a real freedom.

Walking in the mountains of Gallil in Adar makes you feel the poetry of “Song of Songs” to come alive:

“Behold, the winter is past
The rain is over and gone,
The blossoms have appeared on the land,
The time of singing has come;
And the voice of turtledove is heard in our land.”

You experience new and old at the same time: the renewal of the nature and the ancient history at every step. You encounter the caves with the graves of Jewish sages of two thousands years ago, and see an occasional modern-day mystic, coming to meditate in the mountain valley. 

Observing an extensive landscape, illuminated by the soft light, one can see a big picture and our place in it as a link in the chain of generations of Jewish people, with its unique destiny, and inalienable connection to the Land of Israel. This realization creates a joyous feeling of gratitude for Hashem’s many miracles, gifts and compassion that brought us to this point.

In the beginning of the winter this year we were totally absorbed in the news  from the country we lived most of our lives, the country we love and have been proud to be part of. Every day was exciting and suspenseful. It was difficult to sort out the truth from the sea of dis information and venom. We watched in disbelief as it looked like the people were robbed of their choice of the leader, and then we saw subsequent unravelling of all sense of justice, truthfulness and even common sense. The political landscape seemed to have its parallel in the physical reality with the infection spreading around the world. The strange side-effects of loosing smell and taste, and cases of distortion of vision seemed to be a fitting physical reflection of the spiritual distortion of all senses of right and wrong, healthy and sick.… Interestingly, a similar situation has been described more then 200 years ago in Rabbi Nachman of Breslov’s story entitled  “The Seven Beggars”, specifically in the story of the second (deaf) beggar. (All of Rabbi Nachman’ stories are exciting, funny, and worth reading.)

But now the Jewish month of Adar is here, and we turn from the “world of falsehood” to the world of truth. In Adar, we have a Mitzva (commandment) to increase joy every day, as a spiritual preparation to the Holiday of Purim, which comes on the 14th day of Adar. Living in Israel, the joy comes naturally, as the signs of spring are everywhere. Hiking with friends in Tzfat environs, one can see blossoming Shkedia (Almond trees) , the fields of red Israeli Kalaniot (anemones), and hear the symphony of birds singing.

The town too has come alive. Purim is in five days, and there is already a feeling a growing excitement; the streets are full of people (The israeli official lockdown has ended, and more stores are getting open). The people are busily and cheerfully shopping for Purim presents and costumes. There is a new construction and re-building everywhere. Every Shabbos there are more visitors to the city (although mostly Israelis), and more attendance in the synagogues (still with social distancing precautions etc.)

A lot of learning and social events are still on Zoom, but the mood is increasingly light and joyful. The feeling of togetherness is stronger, and there is a lot of kindness and mutual help, which reflects two important mitzvot of Purim: giving presents to friends and giving charity to the poor. All this contributes to the feeling of happiness of being in the place where we belong, sharing in the life of the people here, and ever-increasing appreciation of living in Tzfat – a place of holiness and kindness.

(“In Sukkot you shall sit seven days” VaYikro 23:42)

T here is a lot that is different between celebrating the week-long Holiday of Sukkot in US and Israel. The most obvious difference is the weather. In the US in Maine, where we lived, it almost always rained during Sukkot, at least a day or two, and aside from that, quite often we were sitting in the Sukkah eating a meal bundled in a warm coat and scarf, and still shaking from cold. In our Sukkah in Tzfat this year we go outside in the morning for breakfast with temperature outside of 80 degrees, and have a leisurely breakfast, and also spend there a lot of time afterwords, enjoying the shade, breeze, clean and dry air, and our view of Mount Meron. In the Sukkah we don’t feel alone – there are Sukkot everywhere. Our house is high up on the mountain of Tzfat; there are houses above and below us, and from everywhere you can hear music, singing and laughter. 

It is the third Sukkah we have built in Israel since our Alyah, and we feel it is the best one we ever had. For the first two years  we used a standard 6×6 foot sukkah kit with four wall, with no view. This year we decided to customize it, using two walls of our mirpeset (deck) as part of the Sukkah. As a result it is 50 percent larger and has incredible vistas of the Holy Land. From here, it easy to see why Tzfat has its name, which literally means “Look-Over”.

After Yom Kippur and before Sukkot, while we were shopping in the center of the town, we purchased some some bright colored made-in-China Sukkah decorations. Then on the way home we saw a little fruit stand that was selling fresh pomegranates on the branch. We thought it would make a great Sukkah decoration. Another fruit stand was selling clusters of dates on the on the long stem, which we got for our Sukkah as well. After that, completing Sukkah decorations followed naturally, including branches of olive trees growing near our house, and other of the seven species for which Israel is praised in the Torah. The bright made-in-China decorations never made it out of the shopping bag.

Our Sukkah was complete, but sadly, the Israeli Government issued a decree banning guests during Holiday, as part of Coronavirus-related restrictions. How can we celebrate Sukkot, which is the Holiday of inviting guests, whithout guests? We prayed to have guests, but resigned to do the best we could.  Then right before the start of Sukkot a friend called and asked if she can come over, and of course we invited her for a Friday night dinner, which was also a first night of Sukkot.  The next night another friend came over for advice, and joined us for a snack in the Sukkah. The very next day we got an unexpected call from a friend from another town, who came with her relatives who just made Aliah to Tzfat, and after making sure they are settled, she came to see us and joined us for a meal in the Sukkah.  She asked us to contact her relatives who did not know anybody yet in Tzfat, so we called them and they ended up joining us for dinner in the Sukkah the next day. The day after that, another friend who spent beginning of Sukkot in Haifa, returned to Tzfat and joined us in our Sukkah for breakfast. The following day yet another friend came for lunch. We realized that our prayer for guests has been answered abundantly! 

Tomorrow is the seventh day of Sukkot – Hoshana Raba, when people use branches of Arava (willow) tree as a symbolic accessory for the prayers of that day. When I walked our friend home after lunch in our Sukkah, we saw everywhere kids carrying arava branches. We stopped at the house of the family that my friend knew,  who had an arava tree in their yard. We saw the father and his kids cutting off the branches, and they were happy to share some of them with us. 

There was also one day when while in the Sukkah, a concern that I had for a while came to my mind, and I prayed about it, and saw that prayer answered the same evening. We had learned before that in Sukkah you are enveloped in G-d’s presence, but this year we could really experience it and feel the magic of the Sukkah. With this new realization in mind this Holiday seems to be approaching its end much too soon!

N othing went accordingly to the plans. We expected and planned to spend the summer in Old Orchard Beach, Maine, where we lived prior to our Aliah three years ago. Because of the pandemic, we had to cancel our original plan to travel in June and decided to wait and see… The travel  was limited and uncertain, and discouraged by Israeli government. We heard that airlines were cancelling flights. We heard stories of people contracting virus on the plane; and we read news about riots and racial tensions in US. Most of our friends abandoned travel plans and were advising us not to travel: “What if you get sick and won’t be able to get back before High Holidays? What if you get in the middle of a riot?”  There were also logistical complexities –  if previously there was a direct flight to Boston, from which the travel to Maine is short and convenient, now there were only two direct flights destinations – New York/NewJersey and Los Angeles. We felt immersed in confusion and darkness. But then we realized that our reasons for traveling were compelling enough, including family obligations, personal matters, etc. And then the clear picture started to emerge. We bought tickets to fly United, which, as it turned out, had one flight a day to US all summer, but we did not know that, among all the confusion and fear. We also realized that even though both US and Israel were closed to visitors, we were lucky to be able to fly both directions thanks to our double citizenship.

When we  got to Ben Gurion Airport on August 4, we were shocked to see how empty it was. The only people we saw there were people on our flight.  Of the hundreds of shops and restaurants the only two that were open was the coffee shop in the middle of the Rotunda, and the Duty-free shop. But on the other hand, the Airport was clean and quiet,  there were no lines, and it only took us minutes to get through security and onto the plane. The plane turned out to be completely full, with almost all young ultra-orthodox families with many kids. They all seemed like very nice people, polite, friendly and the kids were well-behaved.There was nobody we saw who was not religious on the whole flight.

We landed in Newark. Despite our prior fears of seeing racial tensions, and may be even riots, what we saw is that even though about half the staff and half the travelers passing through Airport were Hispanic and Black, there was no sign of any tension! Everybody was courteous, professional, friendly, relaxed and pleasant. We had to wait seven hours for our connecting flight to Portland, Maine, but it was not hard, as this Airport, too, was empty, clean, and comfortable.

In Portland Eber’s brother Neal picked us up from the Airport to drive to our apartment in Old Orchard Beach. There too, everything went totally opposite to what we expected. We were ready to keep far away from people for the suggested quarantine period, but it seemed like in Old Orchard it was just a “normal life!” As soon as we left our apartment, our acquaintances we saw in the street were running towards us, welcoming us back. Everybody wanted to talk to us, and were very much interested in the life in Israel. We found Old Orchard synagogue alive and thriving under capable leadership of Eber’s brother Neal. At the same time as we arrived, a group of yeshiva students from Lakewood arrived as well, invited and hosted by Neal for the third summer, so the synagogue had a minyan every day for a week, and also Torah learning, and a lively Shabbat, full of singing. All of these Lakewood young people already had the virus during the past winter, as did Neal and our friend Peter, so they assumed to be immune, and nobody was concerned about all the virus precautions. The next morning after we arrived there was a nice breakfast following prayer services, with people sitting around the table and enjoying food and company. 

The whole atmosphere in Old Orchard was relaxed and peaceful, in sharp contrast to the cities not too far away, like Portland, Maine and Boston, where the fear was much stronger. We noticed that difference on several occasions we had to go to Portland for various errands. Several friends from Boston came to spend Shabbat in Old Orchard and see us. At first they were very tense and apprehensive, but gradually in the course of Shabbat becoming relaxed and free of fear. 

After three and a half weeks in Maine, and completing most of what we undertook to accomplish, we returned to Israel. By the time of our return, Israeli government allowed entry to yeshivah and seminary students, and the flight was full with teenagers, most of them religious girls from different places in the US, going for various programs in Israel. They excitedly talked to each other, making new friends, asking each other where they are from and what programs they are going to. They all seemed to be happy to start this new adventure of self-discovery. For a minute our fears returned: “These teenagers would not even know if they have Corona!” But the fear did not last long, giving way to the feeling of anticipation to come back to the “Land of Living”, the feeling that we shared with all the young people on the plane.

The whole travel experience became a lesson in overcoming fear, and elevating it to its proper place – fear of G-d, learning to see clearly through darkness and not postponing what is important. 

Last week we read Torah portion named “Toldot”, (which is translated, alternatively, as history, legacy, descendants). Regarding this, there is a saying of Jewish sages: “Legacy of righteous are their deeds”. And, as it often happens in the Holy Land, where G-d’s providence is more revealed, we could get a glimpse of how events of the week reflect weekly Torah portion.

Last Thursday night we travelled to Zichron Yakov in order to participate Friday morning in the dedication of a Therapeutic Garden in a new Jewish Elementary school – a beautifully designed space, made possible by donations of many people in the US in the memory of our friend Lori.

While we were still in the US, we shared our dreams and plans of living in Israel with several couples of long-time friends. One of these couples were Lori and George. They loved the Israeli town of Zichron Yakov, a beautiful place on the Mediterranean coast established by baron Rothchild , with many gardens and a lot of history, and they wanted to settle there after making Alyah.

Unfortunately Lori did not live to fulfill her dream. She had gentle, warm, kind and generous nature, and happy and outgoing personality. She also loved nature and animals, especially birds. When she could no longer work because of illness in her profession as occupational therapist helping children, she started to draw and paint, and uncovered a considerable talent, creating, without any prior training, beautiful pictures of nature, birds and animals, pictures full of life, joy, and colors.

After Lori passed away, her husband George was looking to donate money to a fitting cause, reflective of many facets of Lori’s personality – her love for Israel, and love for nature, her kindness, her therapeutic work with children. In the meantime, another couple of good friends, Nechama and Aryeh, made Alyah last year and settled in Zichron Yaakov. They  became friendly with many long time residents one of whom told them of the opportunity and need to transform a plain area in the new Jewish elementary school into a more inviting space for which no more government money was available. That is how the Therapeutic Garden came to life, in the memory of Lori – a beautifully designed area with “pergola”,  raised beds of flowers, and walls adorned with Lori’s pictures of birds and animals, transposed onto ceramic tiles. 

Friday morning we came to the school for the dedication ceremony, The day started with a morning prayer service for Rosh Chodesh (New Month), for which all kids were together in one big room. It was enjoyable to see kids praying together with musical accompaniment, singing together, so free and joyful to be Jewish, as if fulfilling the verse (Psalm 92): “ Planted in the House of Hashem, in the courtyards of our G-d they will flourish” 

After the prayer part was over, Lori’s husband George was greeted by school Principal, and he had an opportunity to talk to kids about the values that Lori represented.

After that, we moved to the new garden area for the dedication ceremony.

The whole event was a rare occasion of “Am Ehad” (One people) – Jewish people in Israel and US together – at a time when there are troubling signs of a growing separation between those two parts of Jewish people. But on this day they were together – in the act of kindness and generosity, that came into existence as a legacy of Lori’s life and character.

After being in the US for almost 3 months, we returned to Tzfat two weeks before Rosh HaShana.The weather was warm (90) and sunny, and the town in the middle of preparations for Holy Days. The stores were selling everything that is needed for holidays: symbolic foods, decorations for the table, book stores had outside displays of Machzorim (prayer books for Holidays) in various Nusachim (orders of prayer.) Many people were making travel arrangements.  Usually for most Holidays we go the big Breslov Shul, which gathers more then 500 people, but on Rosh Ha Shana it was going to be closed Almost all of the male congregants travel to Uman in Ukraine to the grave of Rabbi Nachman. Those Breslov Hasidim that were not traveling to Uman, were making arrangements to go to Meron a few miles away from Tzfat for Rosh Ha Shana – a second preferred place –  to celebrate at the location of the grave of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. Other people were making plans to go to other places in Israel to be with their Rabbis – to Boston Rebbe in Harnov section of Jerusalem, to Lelov Rebbe in Bnei Brack, etc. 

With this exodus, a few days before the Holiday the town seemed to be empty of people, but then, right before the Rosh Ha Shana it got full again with those who regard Tzfat as the best place to be for that Holiday, people from many other cities and towns in Israel. They fill the hotels and the shuls.

We decided to go to a small shul called Beirav, one of the places we like to go on Shabbat because the service is always full of melodies and songs – a very old shul, made of hewn stones, with a beautiful wooden ark, and mechitza (divider) in the middle.  The sitting arrangements are very simple, consisting of rickety plastic chairs. Before the prayer started, the small stone building got completely full, and we felt lucky that we called in advance, and we each got a plastic chair assigned to us: Eber in the mens section and I in the women section. The crowd was very diverse: yeshiva students, Hasidim, sephardim, non-religious Israelis; families from New York, people from various other locations in Israel; all different ages. Not everybody had a place to sit, but a lot of the time during the service, people get up from their chairs and start dancing and clapping. The people who led the service did it with a lot of songs, drawing everybody into singing the melodies conveying the seriousness and solemnity of the day, but also hope and faith. When we walked on the afternoon of the first day of Rosh Ha Shanah with Yitzchak, one of the leaders of the congregation to the Tashlich service, he told us that he was once hired to lead a service for a large congregation in Vienna, but when he arrived, it turned out that the custom there was not to sing prayers but merely to read them, and he could not do that, because the prayer for him is always a melody.

The morning service lasted more then 5 hours, but there was a break in the middle for Kiddush, which was set outside of the shul,  in a narrow Maginei Tzfat alley. The Kiddush was very simple, with wine, honey cakes, juice and some fruit, and it gave the opportunity for people who came from different locations in Israel to talk and feel close to each other.

For the Tashlich service, which requires being near a body of water to symbolically throw away our sins from the previous year, many people in Tzfat go to the Metsuda –  remains of an ancient crusader fortress, located high on the top of the mountain that forms the center of Tzfat, hundreds of feet higher than the rest of of the town. From there on a clear day one can see the entire sea of Gallilee, but even though we unfortunately could not see it because of the haze there was a very large crowd of people from many local shuls in a Holiday mood praying and singing the service. 

The second day of Rosh HaShana was even more enjoyable, as after the first day everybody was even more eager to pray and hear the shofar blows. Between the prayers there was a talk by Israeli young man who came for the Holiday from the town near Tel Aviv. He shared the story of his personal redemption from darkness that led him to total faith and Jewish observance. It was a simple story(in Hebrew), but so appropriate for that day of new beginnings.

It was our first time in Israel for Rosh Ha Shana, and it felt almost unreal and amazing to be in the place of Holiness, light and harmony, which is in such a contrast with most of the world, and to feel the unity of all the different people praying together for the revelation of G-d’s truth and light for the whole world.

We wish all our friends and readers a most happy, sweet, healthy, prosperous year, full of joy and spiritual accomplishments.

“And those days will be remembered and done again in every generation, every family, every city, and these days of Purim won’t disappear from Jewish people and the memory of it won’t be forgotten from their descendants….” Megillah Esther

The Megillah Esther (Scroll of Esther) which is read on Purim describes an incredible reversal of the desperate situation of the Jewish people 3000 years ago in Persia, when there was a decree of annihilation of the Jews in that country. Through a seemingly natural, but in reality miraculous chain of events the situation of  the Jewish people changed from the verge of destruction to becoming victorious over their enemies, and the desperation of near defeat turned into joy and celebration. But the reason this Holiday will never disappear is that it is not only a story that happened a long time ago, but every year the same potentiality reveals itself during these days – the possibility of total reversal of any situation, no matter how desperate it is, through renewed desire for closeness with G-d, and through unity of the Jewish People. It exists for every Jewish person and Jewish Family, but it is being manifested most clearly when you make a decision of becoming part of Jewish Land and its people.

This is a story of a reversal that happened to us.

On March 3rd I broke my leg, after falling on volcanic mountain lookout area in the Golan Heights. Fortunately, I was with my son, who is an emergency room doctor, who examined my leg and said: “yes, you have a broken leg.”  The broken leg was set in Emergency Room in the Hospital in Tzfat, and I returned home in a cast and was told to return in a week to have it examined. After that followed a few difficult weeks of doctor visits and figuring out medical bureaucracy in Israel, but finally I was admitted for surgery to Ziv Hospital in Tzfat.

This is a regional, very busy hospital for much of Northern Israel. I was admitted Sunday for pre-op check-in, and scheduled for surgery on Monday, which meant that I had to fast from the previous night. It happened that on that day there was only one surgery room available, and my case was not considered as severe as some other cases that came through emergency room. In the evening it became known finally that the surgery would not happen that day. I was told that the surgery would definitely happen the next day – Tuesday….. unless there was an emergency. I fasted again, and waited most of Tuesday, until somebody came and told that there was an emergency – a big traffic accident that brought people to emergency room. NO surgery for me on Tuesday.

At this point I felt pretty low, not knowing whether they would take me the next day, the next week, or even the next month.  All hopes to be home before Purim were crushed. I was thinking “It will be the worst Purim of my life, stuck in the hospital, not knowing what will happen…”  We called all our friends who had experience with medical care in Israel and got  the following advice: 1) be loud and assertive 2) speak English 3) call the secretary of the head of the department. We did all three, to no apparent results. Eventually we had to accept the situation and just pray to Hashem…. 

Suddenly, everything changed. Late Tuesday afternoon the head of the department unexpectedly came to my hospital room with a surgeon. He told me “I know what it was like for you, but there will be a compensation: here is  my best surgeon, and he’s going to operate on your leg tomorrow at 3 pm.”   And of course I did not mind fasting next day, as it was the fast of Esther anyway- a Mitzvah. Exactly at 3pm on Wednesday I was rolled in to operating room.

I returned to my room, groggy from anesthesia on Purim eve. I opened my eyes and saw a young couple standing at the foot of my bed, the young woman and her husband wearing a red fez and a red robe, holding a Megillah scroll. They read the scroll to me and left, but soon after a group of young men came with instruments and songs, and then another group of people with Purim presents.

Next day, starting early in the morning,  there was a procession of visitors, friends and strangers, in funny and fancy Purim costumes, jokes, songs and laughter, and a lot of good food, so I was able to have my Purim feast in the Hospital. It turned out to be the best Purim I ever had. 

The frustration that I felt earlier in the week turned into appreciation of all the kindness that I experienced, including kindness of nurses and the hospital personnel. I was discharged Friday afternoon, just before Shabbos, with very little time to prepare for Shabbos, and when we returned home, we again were pleasantly surprised to find at our doorstep many packages piled high. When we opened them we found Challah, soup, chicken, meat, rice, kugels, deserts…

It’s nice to live in a Jewish country where miracles don’t “disappear from the Jewish people”…