There are times in the life of a nation that demand an acknowledgement that perhaps higher powers have assisted us. This is one of those times.
Psalm 100: “A song for a thanksgiving offering. Shout to the Lord, all the earth.”
For the first time in over a decade, there are no Israeli hostages held in Gaza. Further, for the first time since 2014, no Israeli family is waiting for a loved one to come home from captivity in Gaza. After 843 days of uncertainty, waiting, and anguish, St.-Sgt.-Maj. Ran Gvili has been returned home for burial in Israel, being the last hostage taken on that fateful October 7 in 2023. Indeed, it is a time for thanksgiving and for a shout out as well to the One above.
“Serve the Lord with joy, come before Him with praise.”
The soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces who found Ran Gvili’s body in a large Gaza burial ground actuated this phrase from the Psalms of David. Upon finding his body, kaddish, the sanctification of God’s name on behalf of the deceased, was recited after which the gathering sang “Ani Ma’amin” (I Believe) together. This Hebrew statement is a prosaic rendition of Maimonides’ thirteen-point version of the Jewish principles of faith, based on his Mishnah commentary to the Talmud’s tractate Sanhedrin. Following that, the group sang “Hatikvah,” Israel’s national anthem.
The impulse to praise God and reaffirm the national commitment to the cardinal principles of faith that guide us as a people followed by the singing of “Hatikvah” was a demonstrative reaffirmation of the secret sauce that drives the people of Israel to commit to the eternal success of the nation of Israel, which comes naturally here. It is the kind of thing that just happens – unplanned, not choreographed, simply welling up from the soul.
“Know that the Lord is God; He made us and we are His, (His) people and the flock of His pasture.”
Gvili’s parents, Itzik and Talik, expressed both their pain and their gratitude as their son’s body was returned to Israel for burial on Monday evening. But in a moment of joy mixed with sadness, they also made a point of thanking all those who never once lost their faith during the 843-day ordeal of the hostages in Gaza.
One of the amazing but not surprising side effects of what we here in Israel have experienced during these last 28 months, is a countrywide return to the acknowledgement that at the end of the day, everything is in God’s hands. Even in the most secular kibbutzim, there is this return marked in places like Nir Oz, which was devastated on October 7, yet now is building a synagogue on the grounds of the kibbutz for the first time in its history. Yes, miracles do happen.
“Come into His gates with thanksgiving (into His) courtyards with praise; give thanks to Him, bless His name.”
Throughout Israel, meetings and events have been paused to utter words of thanksgiving and gratitude for having lived to this moment. On Monday, at a special Knesset session to honor visiting Prime Minister of Albania Edi Rama, Israel’s Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu rose to utter the words of the sheheheyanu (who has kept us alive) prayer, blessing the Lord and giving thanks for having reached this day of joy and relief.
It was a fitting setting in which to do this, as Albania was the one European country that, during World War II, protected its Jewish residents and saved them all from the wrath of the Nazi regime. Albania is the only European nation that had a larger Jewish population after World War II than before, largely due to the Albanian code of Besa (an ancient code of honor) which protects refugees. Approximately 2,000-3,000+ Jews were saved by locals and protected from Nazi deportation.
“For the Lord is good; His kindness is forever, and until generation after generation is His faith.”
We, the Jewish people, experience the miracle of our continued peoplehood every single day. The resilience of the Jewish people is a phenomenon that has played out over thousands of years, rooted in tradition, adaptability, and an enduring, hope-driven, life-affirming culture. It involves turning historical trauma – such as pogroms, the Holocaust, and exile – into collective strength and rebirth, notably through the revival of the Hebrew language and the establishment of the State of Israel.
With a combination of cultural and religious anchors, incredible adaptability, a tradition of communal unity, and a determined refusal not to fall into despair, we have proven against all odds that, as our tradition teaches, the countenance of God is upon us.
This capacity to survive persecution, including the destruction of both Temples in antiquity, is driven by a deep-seated commitment to passing down traditions and maintaining a “life-affirming” nature, even in the face of extreme adversity.
In a little over a month, we will observe the holiday of Purim celebrating the deliverance of the Jewish people from yet another attempt to destroy us, this time in ancient Persia (today’s Iran…nothing changes). In our days it is a joyous holiday, much as we are joyous about the end of the hostage saga. In an article written in 2020 by former British Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, of blessed memory, he spoke about joy and the Jewish people.
“There are two kinds of joy. There’s expressive joy, the joy you experience and communicate because that’s how you feel. But there’s also therapeutic joy, the joy you will yourself to feel in order to protect yourself against negative emotions,” he said.
“And when we rejoice on Purim, on this festival which is actually the festival about antisemitism, we are saying something very important. We will not be intimidated. We will not be traumatized. We will not be defined by our enemies. We will live with the threats and even laugh at them because what we can laugh at, we cannot be held captive by. And that therefore is really what joy is about. It’s about surviving, and beyond that, thriving, even as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death.”
May we all continue to have the strength to live the wisdom of these words.
The writer, a 42-year resident of Jerusalem, is a former national president of the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel, a past chairperson of the board of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, and a board member of the Israel-America Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM).