Friday night in a bunker

We spent a large part of Friday night in a dusty, cramped bunker, overcrowded because it was lined with old filing cabinets from the Mother and Child Health Center a floor above, which used it as a storage area for that among old building supplies it had used when renovating. For us as parents it was less than pleasant but there were a few golden moments worth sharing. 

One, a local rabbi, Rav Itamar Gugenheim saw a row of children sitting on low-lying nursery chairs and he said to them quizically, "Did you say Hallel yet for what Israel did this morning?!" and then, he started singing, "Be'tzeit Yisrael Mimitzraim" and all the kids joined in chorus, singing with him in a beautiful display of Ahavat Yisrael and helping children deal with the exceedingly difficult situation. 

Another, a friend of mine, a Hareidi man whose sons I happen to teach English and who is part of the Homefront Command, and actively engaged in reserved duty, started singing Am Yisrael Chai and the whole shelter, maybe 70 people, religious and not, sang along with them. From there we sang, Vehi She'amda La'avoteinu all in perfect harmony. I started singing Kol Ha'olam Kulo, and thankfully, to drown out my lackluster voice, everyone else joined in. The highlight, for me, though was when we were singing, "Hashem Yitbarach Tamid Ohev Oti," and then, from right above our heads, all the kids - sitting on top of the filing cabinets, broke out into song, Rina, our youngest, only three years of age who shys away from many a public situation screaming as well at the top of her lungs with the other half a dozen kids there, "Ve'tamid Yihye Li Rak Tov" - and I'll always have only good. 

This past week's parshah was jam-packed but it's bookended in the middle by two very famous verses: 

When the Ark was to set out, Moses would say:

Advance, Hashem May Your enemies be scattered,

And may Your foes flee before You!

And when it halted, he would say:

Return, Hashem 

You who are Israel’s myriads of thousands!

Similarly, now, may the Torah-learning, and Psalms we say and our holy children singing and praying protect us and all of our fellow brothers and sisters. It says in the Gemorah (Makot 10.) that without King David being the Torah luminary, the general, Yoav could not have succeeded at war, and without Yoav as the general, David couldn't have had the peace of mind to succeed in his learning. May the synergy of the two propel us to victory in this just war against the reach of evil. 


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