* Translated by Janine Muller Sherr
This week, a group of IDF reservists arrived at a school in northern Israel and discovered, much to their astonishment, this date written on the board in one of the classrooms: 7th of Tishrei 5784—exactly one year ago that day. Next to the date, there was also an assignment: “Choose one line from the Neilah (closing prayer of Yom Kippur) and write it down in your notebook.”
This homework assignment was never marked. After last Simchat Torah, the settlement that houses this school was evacuated and the students have yet to return to the classroom.
One year after the teacher wrote this assignment on the board, these reservists decided to prepare for their own Neilah prayer by completing the assignment themselves! Each one of them copied a line from Neilah into a notebook. They managed to obtain the phone number of the school principal and asked her if they could submit the homework to the teacher, one year late, as a gesture of goodwill. They added their wish that she should be able to return to her classroom soon in peace.
I took a look at the notebook that was sent to the teacher, each page filled with powerful, inspiring sentences jotted down in adult handwriting.
No wonder the school principal, Sigal, was very touched by this gesture and sent the soldiers the following note: “Without knowing it, you have done something amazing. The teacher of this class, Zahava, retired this year, and you have now closed a circle for her. You have given her a beautiful retirement gift since we haven’t yet returned to school. Thank you for fighting for us so that we will be able to come back to a secure home.” There have been countless more emotional responses from the staff, parents, and children at this school for this very special greeting from the soldiers before Yom Kippur.
Then I remembered that there is another line that could be written in the notebook. We close the Neilah prayer with the verse, “Next year in a rebuilt Jerusalem.” And this year we can add: Next year in a rebuilt Kiryat Shemona and (Kibbutz) Be’eri in a rebuilt Israel. Amen.