* Translation by Yehoshua Siskin ([email protected])
Shavua tov from New York. “How do we emerge from darkness into light?” This difficult question was asked by Rabbi Chaim Sampson, the host of a Project Inspire Shabbat event attended by more than a 1,000 people from all over the world. Among all the lectures and conversations on Shabbat, his answer to this question stood out.
“So how do we emerge from darkness into light?” Rabbi Sampson asked. “Today there is so much sadness and grieving. I want to tell you about a 5-year-old child who lost his parents in the Holocaust. He was forced to leave his beloved home and, together with his big brother, endured a slave labor camp, a concentration camp, a death march, hunger, cold, and daily horrors. At the age of 8 when the war ended, he was illiterate. Instead of going to school he had to move dead bodies at Buchenwald, and simply did not know how to read or write. He made aliyah by boat and when he arrived in Israel was immediately sent to a detention camp in Atlit.
What kind of future would you have envisioned for a child like this? Orphaned, abandoned, poor, without education, with unimaginable fears and traumas. I want to invite this child to the stage. He is already 87 years old. He is known as Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau. He rehabilitated himself and progressed in life. He married and raised a wonderful family. He was the Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi of Israel. He is the chairman of the Yad Vashem Council and one of the most famous spokesmen on Israel’s behalf and on behalf of the Jewish people throughout the world.
Let us hope that children from Be’eri, Sderot, and Kfar Aza can gain strength from his story. This is not only a personal story of Yisrael, the orphaned child. This is the story of the nation of Israel. We have living proof in our generation of the ability to emerge from disaster to rebirth. It is a great privilege to hear the story of Rabbi Lau, our story, especially during this time.”
May everyone hear good news.
