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YOM HASHOAH PRAYER
By Rabbi Israel Zoberman
Elohei hazikaron vehatikva, God who bids us to carve hope out of
remembrance:
This awesome Spring season, no less so than the Days of Awe in the Fall,
is dedicated to memories. Memories are the building blocks of Jewish
history, which, in turn, provides for our own distinct consciousness.
Pesach's themes of oppression and redemption assume contemporary
relevancy. Ruthless bondage in ancient Egypt finds a terrifying parallel
in the Shoah, and past liberation is reenacted through Israel's rebirth.
To be a Jew is living with history's extremes, enduring the tension
between despair and exultation and turning them both into life-shaping
forces. A child of the covenant is keenly aware of history's impact to
bless and to curse. We thus remain bereft in face of the Shoah's
overwhelming magnitude.
When words freeze and the link to life threatens to disengage, we turn to
the Kaddish prayer for supportive reassurance. Its consecrated spirit
does not drag us to the dwelling place of utter desolation, to consume our
souls as were the bodies of unforgettable kin whose tragic loss ever
diminishes the joy of celebration. The hallowed prayer of sanctification
allows us to preserve our very humanity, enabling us, hopefully, to
gradually climb from the hollowness of the valley of the shadow of death
to the mountain where faith abounds, so that we may trust again man and
God and live to be sustained by both.
The intoning of the Kaddish, bringing us closer as a family sharing the
lingering pain of the past, is a negation and an affirmation. It is a
negation of the creators of the Kingdom of Night who conspired to uproot
the commanding presence of El Melech Chai Verachum, our Living and
Compassionate God and King, whose praise we dare proclaim even when
enveloped by impregnable darkness hiding His own essence of goodness. It
is a repudiation of messengers of evil who would rob the human experience
of its sweet promise.
It is no wonder that in our tradition, affirmation transcends negation,
for the people of Israel have resolved not to succumb to a vision of a
world devoid of blessing. We have chosen to embrace the power of hope,
witnessing that our people discover meaning when there seems to be none,
and creating life when faced with death. The only kind of prisoners we
freely elect to be is prisoners of hope. That is our Jewish vocation, for
Hatikvah is our anthem. Amen.
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