Ki Mitzyon Teyze Torah - For Out of Zion Comes Torah Rabbi David A. Kunin, Congregation Beth David Yesterday, on Thursday morning, we journeyed from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, seeking meaning and perhaps comfort for the difficult experiences in the South on Wednesday. Over the short time of our mission, we have felt pain and a little hope, and have borne witness to horrors not in the distant past, but in the present, creating an ongoing wound both here in Israel, and across the Jewish world. Symbolically going up to Jerusalem, we were I think hoping to find Torah from Zion, and not just words. Eliza Doolittle (GBS), perhaps quoting Hamlet, once sang, “Words, words, words all I get are words.” (Learner and Lowe) Like Hamlet she was rejecting the utility of language, wanting actions, which are reputed (according to Samuel Clemens) to “speak louder than words.” Yet, sometimes we need words to help us along our paths, as we try to find meaning, especially for events which seem so meaning
On February 19, eighteen members of the South Bay Jewish community arrived in Israel for a mission of solidarity. Rabbis and professionals, past and current lay leaders from synagogues, schools, Unexeptable, and Jewish Silicon Valley joined together to bear witness, visit the sick and comfort the mourners. This blog will feature posts from participants to document and share what we have witnessed and experienced.