Resilience In Spirit

Key Findings:

(1) God:

Rabbi Tamar Elad-Applebaum provides an interpretation of God’s creation in the book of Genesis, weaving it with a personal story of her grandfather, a Holocaust survivor, and other reflections on Jewish history. She analyzes the first verse of Genesis, “Pre-creation was an abyss of dangerous and confusing chaos… the creation of light was a defiant response to that darkness.” The first thing written in the entire Torah is there to remind the Jewish people that despite inevitable darkness, light is the ultimate antidote. 

(2) Torah:

Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt recounts the story of Rabbi Akiva and the daf. When Rabbi Akiva was caught in a shipwreck, he survived by clinging onto a plank, or as he called it, a daf (which translates to “page” in Hebrew). He held onto it and ducked under the waves until he was safely brought to shore. Metaphorically, the daf symbolizes the Talmud. Jewish resilience is clinging onto written tradition and identity during times of chaos and destruction. 

(3) Israel:

Rabbi Zohar Atkins writes of the story of Joseph, and links it to the Jewish condition of loneliness. Like Joseph in the Torah, the Jewish nation is hated and envied for their chosenness. This is especially apparent today, when the State of Israel is demonized in the wake of the Israel-Hamas War. The misunderstanding, bias, and hatred that Jews face is a trend that is consistently apparent throughout history. However, Rabbi Atkins argues that there is reward born of this phenomenon of Jewish loneliness and the difficulties that come with it. After overcoming a period of strife, the Jewish people grow in strength, unity, and sense of self– independent of the world’s help or judgment.