What Holds Us Together

 Dear Friends,

I will be writing two blogs about our recent trip to Poland with college students from George Mason University.

This week in our scriptural reading, we read from the conclusion of the book of Exodus.  We read about many of the details about the construction of the holy Tabernacle that our ancestors built in the wilderness..

One of the items that we read about during the last parts of Exodus, is the construction of the clasps that held things together.  I am intrigued by what helps anything holy stay together.

While we were in Poland and were visiting the sites of the Warsaw Ghetto, the villa and zoo in Warsaw which is described in the book and movie, "The Zookeeper's Wife,", Treblinka,  the Lublin Yeshiva (place of study), the Grodzka gate, Majdanek, Auschwitz/Birkenau, the Labyrinth, Plaszow, Schindler's factory, Kashmierz, and the Krakow ghetto.  As you can see we saw many things.

What does this have to do with clasps that our ancestors built as part of the portable Tabernacle?  As I listened to students talking about their experiences, I realized that the clasps that keep our society together, the links that build community, the connections that help make the world safer and more just, are each one of us.  Each student on our trip was touched in a different way and hopefully through their educational experience will find it in their hearts to do what they can to be sure that "Never Again" is more than just a phrase.

While in Treblinka, we saw a video of a survivor of Treblinka who witnessed unspeakable horror.  When asked during the video how he coped with what he experienced, he said that he lived in parallel worlds.  Yes, he had to live with Treblinka but he also lives with his non-Treblinka life.

I believe that we cannot avoid the challenges which we face  around the world and here in the United States.  But, we must also live with the fact that we can make changes, we can fight discrimination, we can work to eradicate prejudice, and that we cannot and must not succumb to hopelessness.

My hope for all of us who participated in the trip to Poland and all those who are reading this (and hopefully sharing it with others), is that we will devote part of our lives to working for equality.  As we conclude the book of Exodus this week, we say "hazak, hazak, v'nithazek.  May we be strong and strengthen each other.

Next week, I will write about the little things, small acts of kindness, moments of inspiration which are what made this pilgrimage so very special and which give us strength and hopefully will motivate us to strengthen each other.

Shabbat Shalom/Sabbath Peace,

Rabbi Bruce Aft