The Madoff Scandal

As unforgivable as are the deeds of Bernard Madoff, and as much as he is to be held personally accountable for the wreckage that he has caused to people's lives, to the Jewish community, and to people and institutions all over the world, he and his crimes are at least as much symptoms of our larger evils as a society as he is to blame in and of himself. Our tendency as a society has been increasingly to over-value money and material accumulation and to under-value the most basic moral and ethical principles of the social contract that undergirds our civilization. Somehow, we have to find our way back to the norm that a handshake means a commitment and an oath is sacred. In this regard, I'm afraid we have a longer journey ahead than we might with regard to repairing our economy. To begin, we might reconsider what we ought worry about most: What we have or who we are. We can be sure that we are decidedly on our journey toward a real, spiritual recovery when we will have begun our preoccupation with who we are and reduced our obsession with what we have.

Rabbi Isaac Jeret
Spiritual Leader
Congregation Ner Tamid of South Bay
www.nertamid.com

Ensuring a Vibrant Jewish Future;

One IDF Soldier at a Time

by Rabbi Isaac Jeret

December 12, 2008

*Reprinted From: The Jewish Journal of Los Angeles

The future of world Jewry and that of the State of Israel are inextricably bound. Today, this notion no longer enjoys the luxury of residing in the intellectual domains of the ideological or the philosophical. It reflects a sobering realism to which Jews worldwide ought awaken hastily and with conviction and it merits a call to action on behalf of Israel's security, both for Israel's sake and for our own, for reasons that are both obvious and otherwise. Whether to strengthen Israel's defense, to help maintain its ability to protect or rescue Jews at risk beyond Israel, to support the vitality and success of Israel's next generations, or to promote Jewish identity among our own youth and young adults, it is imperative that our efforts to ensure Israel's future and our own include an essential commitment on our part, as Jews who live outside of Israel, to the welfare of the young men and women who serve as soldiers in the IDF - Israel's Defense Forces.

Why so? Consider some of the major challenges and vulnerabilities that Jews living in Israel and elsewhere must face together today and for the foreseeable future. In our era, Israel's Jewish population has become the world's largest and it is the only one in the world with a positive birthrate. As North America's Jewish population grows older on average and decreases in number, Israel's continues to grow younger and increases in number. Jews throughout the world will experience Israel evermore in the generations to come as the center-place of the Jewish experience, due to this population shift alone. Therefore, our investment in Israel's next generation becomes, more so than ever, one of our most important investments in the Jewish future. Moreover, if our own youth and young adults connect to Israel's, they will be more likely to connect to the more vibrant expressions of Judaism in the decades to come.

I do not at all mean to suggest that anyone should give up on Jews and Judaism outside of Israel. But, we would be wise to ensure that the IDF remains capable not only of defending Israel, but, of fostering and encouraging healthy generations to come of the largest Jewish population in the world. After all, by sheer necessity, due to the large number of young adults and reservists required for Israel's protection at any given moment, the IDF is one of Israel's largest social service agencies, it is one of Israel's most important educational agencies for the purposes of teaching Jewish history and the history of the State of Israel to Israeli youth, and it is often the training ground for technical or professional careers for Israeli men and women who contribute after their IDF service to one of the world's most advanced work-forces and economies or go on to study in some of the world's finest universities. In supporting the humanitarian welfare of the IDF, we can help to ensure that Israel's future is a bright one and that our own children and grandchildren will have meaningful partners in Israel with whom they can collaborate for decades to come in the development of every facet of Jewish life and otherwise.

However, as vulnerable as we are in North America to the population challenge, Israel has its vulnerabilities, as well - some of them equally existential in nature. Iran's aggressive pursuit of nuclear weapons is a cause for serious alarm. Its training and arming of Hezbollah and Hamas with rockets and missiles, enables each alone to threaten the normalcy of daily life throughout all of Israel. Add to these the challenges posed by a conventionally re-armed and nuclear-aspiring Syria and the lack of any reasonable signs of the emergence of a sincere partner for peace among even the "moderate" Palestinian Authority, and it is clear that Israel lives in a neighborhood at least as rough as it has always been. Israel's vulnerability to a nuclear-armed foe is compounded by the fact that two-thirds of Israel's roughly 5.5 million Jews live within a 3,500-square-mile area on the Mediterranean coastline. Iran's ruler, the Ayatollah Khameini, has therefore posited quite publicly that one nuclear weapon dropped on Tel Aviv would, for all practical purposes, destroy the State of Israel!

Israel's need to ensure its military superiority is a foregone necessity, given all of the above. Israel cannot afford to spend one dime less than it must spend on its defense, for a mistake worth even a dime could cost the entire country! Given what the IDF must spend on training, planning, arming and maintaining its personnel, it relies heavily upon the generosity of individuals, foundations, and corporate sponsors - both in Israel and beyond - to fund the humanitarian welfare of its soldiers. A great many of Israel's young men and women serve not only in defense of Israel, but, with an ever-present awareness that they are serving on behalf of every Jew everywhere in the world. Their strength gives us strength. Their courage inspires our own courage. Not only are they a source of enormous Jewish pride for so many of us in their decency, humanity and dedication, but they deserve our own support for that which they extend to us every day. I have met and spoken with literally thousands of Israeli soldiers, aged 18-21, over the years, and I have yet to encounter even one of them unready or unwilling to protect or rescue a Jew in distress, anywhere in the world and at a moment's notice. Our support for their humanitarian welfare is the least that we can do for those who embody and exhibit such extraordinary commitment to the Jewish People and to our Homeland.

There are yet other existential threats, some of them growing and deepening, to which Jews in Israel and all of us elsewhere are increasingly susceptible. Advocates for Israel's demise urge the world toward a normative view that Zionism is an imperialist, colonialist and racist ideology. The campaign to discredit Israel and challenge its very right to exist is organized and energized. The vast majority of those involved in perpetrating this big lie cloak their anti-Semitism with the veil of anti-Zionism. They manipulate public opinion to affect the foreign policies of countries that have enjoyed cooperative relationships with Israel, including our own, suggesting the "Zionists" dominate the press or unduly influence legislators. Similarly, they work to isolate Israel, to ban its scholars and products, and to tie its hands when attacked by terrorists. Increasingly, Israelis and other Jewish academicians and diplomats are challenged to prove their lack of bias in favor of Israel by repudiating their Zionism and even renouncing their Israeli citizenship!

Of course, we were reminded just last week by the gruesome attack on the Chabad House in Mumbai by Islamic terrorists that the treachery of anti-Semitism does not differentiate between Israeli Jews and Jews of other nationalities. When it comes to anti-Semitism, all Jews sail in the same boat, and we are sea-worthy only to the extent that we remain united. When the world perceives Israel to be strong and willing to act as it needs to do so, either in its own defense or to deter aggression against itself or Jews anywhere else, and when it is clear that Jews worldwide stand likewise behind Israel's soldiers both in spirit and otherwise, Jews throughout the world are the safer for it. Our strong support for the humanitarian welfare of Israel's young men and women serving in the IDF is an absolute necessity toward this end, as it allows the IDF to focus on its daunting, but, surmountable job in defense of Israel and the Jewish People while it supports and boosts the morale of troops who give so much of themselves, knowing they may be called upon to give even more.

Israel's security rests upon the shoulders of the men and women of the IDF. As do Jews from other countries today, our children will need Israel and Israelis as primary partners for the development and deepening of their Jewish identities. As well, existential threats shared by Jews in Israel and around the world will be addressed in partnership by both together.

Let's remember who the young men and women of the IDF really are; they, too, are our children. They are our sons and daughters, our boys and girls. They are family. They need us. And, they know, at least as much as we do, that we need them. Both our present and our future are indeed inextricably bound with Israel's, and with every young man and woman in the IDF; they are bound by a sacred trust. It is up to us to ensure that this trust is never broken. In doing so, we will help to ensure a vibrant Jewish future -- one IDF soldier at a time.

*Rabbi Isaac Jeret is the Spiritual Leader of Congregation Ner Tamid of South Bay in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA. Among his various communal involvements, he serves currently as the Chairman of the National Rabbinic Cabinet of the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF), as the vice -president of the L.A. chapter of FIDF, and as a member of FIDF's National Board.

Introduction to Yizkor Service - 2007

A Special Thank You To Non-Jewish Spouses of The Congregation Ner Tamid Family

My friends, we are about to begin the journey into our collective and respective memories of all of those who have come before us. For some of us, in some instances, our relationships with those whom we remember were simple and sweet. I have found, as I am sure that you have found, that this is not always the case. As well, the breadth and depth of our memories of individuals are as limited as our relationships with them were complex and even complicated at times; none of us can fathom the entirety of another’s existence. Our loved ones’ more complete interaction with this world and contribution to it is truly beyond our grasp.

Therefore, on this day of remembering, we ask God to remember. We ask The One Who Records and Keeps All That Has Been to remember today the grandest scope and the most personal intimacies of the lives lived by our loved ones. By recognizing God’s role as the repository of all that has been, we gain strength as we reach toward greater truths and deeper lessons to be gleaned from those whom we loved and those with whom we struggled, from those who loved us and even from those who caused us hurt while loving us.

However, as our memories are indeed incomplete, there is yet another reason that we call upon our Creator this day to remember souls departed from this world. We do so in the hope, as well, that the remembrance achieved this day is indeed the remembrance that is rightly due to our loved ones. We are not alone. The burden and opportunity of remembering is one we share with God.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, I will share with you at this time, just prior to the Yizkor Service on this day, the holiest and most important day of the entire year for our People, a message that every one of us must hear and must repeat to others. These are quite likely the most important words that I will share with you throughout this entire day.

There are Jewish souls, some long departed from this world and some more recently so, who, while alive, might have looked today at this sanctuary with rage and shame. They would have seen that some of us gathered here today are Jewish men and women partnered in loving relationships, married, and even raising children with men and women who are not Jewish themselves. They would likely have felt a sense of betrayal that their heritage, one struggled for and even died for, would not be carried forth with its splendor, strength, and wisdom unto future generations.
What they would have missed while looking from the past to the present is that so many of those who are not Jewish in this room have committed themselves to building Jewish households and raising Jewish children. What they could not have known is that so often, in our era and in our community, it is the non-Jewish spouse who cares for his or her children’s Jewish identity and development even more so than our loved ones’ Jewish descendent! They would not have understood the tremendous acts of love and generosity to the Jewish People offered by those of you in this room today who have not chosen to be Jewish yourselves but have shared your children with a People who needs you so very much and needs your children to be a part of our future. They could never have imagined the personal sacrifices that you have undertaken, often forgoing meaningful moments derived from the traditions of your own families in support of a faith common to your spouse and his or her family. In their condemnation of their Jewish descendents, these Jewish souls of the past would have missed one of the kindest and most selfless acts of love and generosity ever known to the Jewish People.

Today, there are 13 million Jews in the world. That’s right; there are almost three times as many citizens of the State of California than there are Jews in the entire world! We struggle each year and each decade to maintain our numbers and to keep our average age from increasing! Know that as sure as we cannot remember our loved ones for the entirety of who they were, our loved ones could not have begun to imagine the commitment and generosity for which we thank you — the non-Jewish spouses in this sanctuary today who have chosen to raise your children Jewishly, to participate in our community, and to participate in building Jewish homes and a Jewish future. We thank you today for perpetuating and strengthening our People. Your gift of time, energy, and commitment must not go unnoticed any longer.

As God is my witness today and as I know with certainty in my heart, each departed soul of every family remembered today by those gathered in this sanctuary joins with every Jew in this space today in thanking you for all that you do for and give toward the future of our People. Looking from the past, they couldn’t have known of your gift to their People’s future. Looking from eternity — from above and beyond — they see you for who you are and for all that you do. You and your children are a blessing unto all of us and our love and gratitude knows no bounds.

Now, my friends, let us all remember our loved ones …

Rabbi Isaac Jeret
Spiritual Leader
Congregation Ner Tamid of South Bay
www.nertamid.com

Inclusive Governance & Constructive Opposition

Next Tuesday, there will be winners and there will be losers. At first glance, the winners would appear to include the victor in the presidential and congressional elections, and their supporters; the losers would appear to include the runners-up among the candidates, and their supporters.

In truth, however, the winners might include both those victorious and those unsuccessful in their electoral bids, and their respective supporters -- so long as they revisit, as we must all revisit in our country, the role of an inclusive, governing majority and a constructive opposition. Those who emerge as the voice of the majority must reach out, across the aisle, to embrace, engage, and include the opposition in the work of governing and legislating for our country. And, in turn, the opposition must serve in its vital role in a democracy in a constructive manner.

This doesn't mean that the majority shouldn't seek to enact policies and legislation, or that it shouldn't govern on the whole, in a manner that reflects its values. It should do so, with confidence, without arrogance, with civility, and with an open ear to the voices and opinions of the opposition. In other words, those in the majority would be wise to acknowledge the limitations of their mandate. Such an awareness would then lead them to lean toward the center, toward moderation, whether from their elected position to the right or to the left of the political center. To be inclusive in governance means, by consequence, to respect the mandate of the opposition, as well, and to account for its perspective when determining policy. The majority must treat the opposition with respect and must aim to learn from its wisdom, not only because the opposition reflects a constituency that could easily become the majority in the future, but, far more importantly, because to do otherwise would be to diminish the humanity and dignity, and to disregard the intelligence and fundamental worth, of those with perspectives that differ from the majority.

Likewise, a constructive opposition is not one that is oppositional intrinsically. It should oppose articulately, passionately, but, always respectfully those matters of policy with which it disagrees. It should not oppose or seek to diminish the people who voice them, believe in them, vote for them, or legislate and enforce them, for many of the same reasons.

Respectful discourse -- civility -- is the only basis upon which our government, indeed our society as a whole, might ascend yet again toward the virtues associated with intellectual honesty, among them the capacity to govern, and to be governed, from the center of the political spectrum. Respectful discourse is required not only when the camera is upon us or when the tape is running. Respectful discourse is both the prerequisite for reclaiming our public and personal appreciation of dissent and divergence of opinion and the product of it. Our near-term and long-term viability as a society will depend upon our ability to rediscover our capacity to foster and project an inclusive majority and a constructive opposition, and it all begins with respectful, but, truthful discourse. Ultimately, such discourse and, by consequence, such an orientation toward governance, can return our country to the more moderate governments, most common throughout the history of our great nation.

As the Talmudic Sages taught with regard to those disagreements of opinion that are well-intended, but, unclear in their resolution: Elu Va'Elu Divrei Elohim Chayim -- Both opinions are words of the Living God.

May our elected representatives in government, whether of the majority or the opposition, always aim to reflect a purity purpose in their efforts, and may they always remember to respect one another for aiming to do so!

Rabbi Isaac Jeret

Spiritual Leader

Congregation Ner Tamid of South Bay

http://www.nertamid.com/rabbi

Responding to Ahmadenijad

Responding to Ahmadinejad

by Rabbi Isaac Jeret

September 25, 2008

Dear Friends:

The leadership of the American Muslim community, from those who head major organizations to the Imams in each and every Mosque, bear a heavy burden today. They MUST speak out against the insidious, malicious, and inciting remarks by Iran's president at the United Nations, lest they give their tacit approval to such sentiments. History has proven that silence is indeed acquiescence in situations just such as these. Moreover, the overwhelming failure on the part of Muslim leadership, the world over, to condemn Muslim violence against Jews in Israel and elsewhere and, specifically, to condemn unequivocally organized terrorism by Muslim groups, over the last eight years and prior, is utterly shameful; the Muslim community's local, regional, and national leadership -- BOTH political and religious -- now has an opportunity to redeem itself by condemning in the strongest manner Ahmadinejad's remarks.

Of course, it didn't help this cause when the majority of the rest of the world's representatives to the United Nations responded with grand applause to Ahmadinejad's remarks. However, this call is to the leadership of the AMERICAN Muslim community, hoping that, just as we Jews are willing to condemn hate and terror if and when they arise among elements of our own communities, in America, in Israel or anywhere else, they will do the same -- in this instance and forever more. Maybe then, terror and violence will seem less reasonable an alternative for the next generation of Muslims throughout the world.

May the New Year begin with the strongest voice of unequivocal opposition to and condemnation of Ahmadinejad's remarks, voiced by the American Muslim community -- on the national, regional, and local levels. May such historic remarks then bring about a change of rhetoric, toward similar condemnation, among Muslim political and religious leaders throughout the world. And, may we then, as a united Jewish community, and with great resolve, find the strength to risk embracing such unequivocal condemnation and pursue with ever-greater vigor a path of dialogue and mutual understanding, but, only with those among the Muslim community's leadership who speak or write their condemnations and opposition unequivocally, publicly, and loudly.

And, dear friends, if none of the above can be achieved, may God then bless us with even greater resolve and strength to acknowledge openly the true meaning of the silence and/or "even-handed" pseudo-condemnations among the Muslim community's leadership. May we then find the courage to withhold our support for the self-deprecating and provincially self-centered interfaith dialogue that so many of us pursue every day with local, regional, and national Muslim leaders, and which they have used, in turn, to gain and claim legitimacy in the eyes of America and to divide one Jew from another. And, may we then see with greater clarity and unanimity the need to stand with Israel evermore and steadfastly, for Israel's struggle should then be clear to all of us to be our own.

With every hope for a New Year filled with God's blessings of wisdom, clarity, conviction, courage, and strength for the entirety of our People -- and with every prayer that a change in the Muslim world -- beginning right here in America -- might allow us to work together toward a genuine and durable peace for all of us and all of humanity,

Rabbi Isaac Jeret
Spiritual Leader

(To watch Ahmadinejad's remarks, please click here: Youtube Video)

Can We Still Pray?

CAN WE STILL PRAY?

A Dilemma of Modernity and a Response

by Rabbi Isaac Jeret

September 15, 2008

The High Holy Days pose for many of us in our era a great challenge of faith. In times past, when beliefs were absolute and ritual was taken most literally by many more of us, the drama of the worship experience of the High Holy Days held a sense of urgency, as our ancestors understood their very existence for the coming year to have depended upon these Services and how they engaged them. Most worshippers felt, or thought they should have felt, an awesome and humbling sense of personal and communal judgment in God's Presence. Hence, the term, "The Days of Awe," used traditionally to refer to the ten days from Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur.

For many Jews today, as for many faith-associating individuals throughout Western Civilization, religious identity and experience has been greatly influenced by the contemporary disciplines of the Sciences. Scientific truths and religious truths do not align, for the most part. A scientific finding is best articulated in terms of that which we do not know, as opposed to the historically religious virtue of "being certain of spiritual truths, with a perfect faith." We now know that many emotional, genetic, sociological, and psychological factors drive people to act as they do. People are not only driven by the knowledge and awareness of right and wrong or a simplistic view of good and evil that ancient religion might appear to have had us understand to be the root of all human motivation. We live today in a civilization that is blessed with the possibility of tolerance, born of a humility and uncertainty that arises from an awareness of all that we do not know, countering at once both age-old and born-again fundamentalist ideologies that prevail, even today, in certain corners of the world (and gaining power and proximity to us every day).

To be sure then, we are challenged as Jews at this time of year to make meaning of our own religious heritage, a tradition which presents in its High Holy Day liturgy a vast array of absolute ideas that seem more common to the religious criteria for truth (a perfect faith) that many of us have abandoned for the Scientific truth-criteria of our age. Consider this most familiar Judaic theme for this period of our calendar and its dissonance with so much that our scientifically influenced perceptions would encourage us to imagine: "On Rosh Hashanah we are inscribed and on Yom Kippur we are sealed (our fate for the coming year is inscribed and sealed during this period of the Jewish calendar)." If we are honest about it, how many of us believe that God listens to our prayers (with God's ears?), judges the measure of penitence in our hearts (with a gavel?), and determines our fate for the coming year (does God not have anything better to do than determine whether we catch a common cold?)? If the notion is to be proposed literally, few of us would be able to answer honestly that we so believe. If the challenge of these High Holy Days is, to some extent, to emerge with a more perfect faith, how can we do so in light of the uncertainty that under-girds the contemporary culture with which we so identify? Can we reconcile a Jewish statement of absolute faith with a world of scientific uncertainty? If not, how can our High Holy Day experience exceed a nostalgic journey to a (Jewish) world of simplistic and antiquated truths and familiar melodies, garnished with brisket, matzah balls, and tzimmis?

I would suggest, instead, that in our era, a break from the subjective and relative realities that frame our lives -- a break from the scientific lenses through which we have been trained to understand our own experience -- is exactly what might most effectively inspire our own reflection and the self-corrections that we must undertake at this time of year, both to improve our own lives and to make our world a better place. The High Holy Days do not require and do not intend for us to achieve any enduring faith in the words of their liturgy. We do not score any points with God for donning a literal belief or adhering to the metaphors for God's Being and Deeds and to the Divinely ordained destiny of our own fate as they are portrayed in our liturgy.

Rather, my dear friends, our liturgy asks of us the following: If all of the suppositions of these prayers would be factual, if God would indeed inscribe our fate, if the gates of Teshuvah (penitence) would really close at the conclusion of Yom Kippur, if Teshuvah and repair could indeed be facilitated in greater measure at this time of year than at any other, if the world of our liturgy was the world we lived in every day -- how, then, would we adjust our existence? How then would we conduct our affairs? How then would we live our lives?

Our liturgy invites us into a passionate and urgent virtual-reality in which our lives and our fate do truly hang in the balance. The more wholly we enter this drama, suspending our disbelief and experiencing its greatest power, the more whole we might emerge from it. Underneath all of the theological, psychological, and scientific progress that we've made as human beings, each of us can benefit still from a brief return to a simple world of rights and wrongs, of ultimate rather than relative accountability and responsibility, and of an urgency to repair that awaits our correction. We need this return, not because it is a return to a world of truth from a world of falsehood, but rather because a momentary return to a more simple but personally responsible world of the past might be one of the sole opportunities left to humanity to heal a world that might best remain otherwise in the uncertain and far more complicated contemporary present. Both worlds are true. Both worlds are necessary -- each in their moment.

Our High Holy Days can be for us solely and merely a return to the comfort of nostalgia. If so, however, they can serve only as a lesser opportunity for spiritual and personal growth and improvement for us, in our era, than they did so for our ancestors of eras past. Alternatively, we can utilize this sacred time to improve ourselves and the world about us, precisely by entering the drama of our liturgy -- suspending our disbelief and allowing for different truths to emerge than we know daily -- and thereby gaining perspective and motivation to awaken to one another more genuinely and compassionately at the end of this sacred journey of ten days from the start of Rosh Hashanah to the conclusion of Yom Kippur. Should we accept this challenge, then, because of the tolerance, pluralism, and humility that we can nurture in our contemporary world, we, in our era, might exceed even the greatest measure of healing and repair that our ancestors ever achieved at this time of year in eras gone by.

God asks not from us a perfect faith at the conclusion of these awesome days. Rather, God asks of us to measure for ourselves whom we must become by the conclusion of this period. To emerge from these Days of Awe as we ought, we might enter into the experience of the timeless, solemn, simple, exuberant, majestic, and very urgent prayers of our People – then and now, and always. Through the timeless genius of our Divinely gifted spiritual heritage, God blesses us with this extraordinary opportunity for renewal. May our journeys through the transformational drama of our worship lead all of us toward a destination of wholeness and deepening wisdom.

A Letter From Israel

A LETTER FROM ISRAEL

by Rabbi Isaac Jeret

May 9, 2008

*Recently, Rabbi Jeret accepted an invitation to serve as the Chairman of the Rabbinic Cabinet of the American Friends of The Israel Defense Forces (FIDF). In this capacity, he visited Israel briefly last week, attending the official Memorial Day commemorations in Jerusalem and Netanya and Israel's official Independence Day celebrations in Jerusalem. Rabbi Jeret also led Memorial Services at Yad Vashem (Israel's Holocaust memorial and museum) at the dedication of its new Bridge of Hope and participated in the dedication of a synagogue and Torah-Scroll at an IDF base, in addition to several other important and inspirational engagements. While in Israel, Rabbi Jeret wrote the following message to our community ... Rabbi Jeret reflects below upon the unique lessons of Memorial Day (Yom Hazikaron) and Independence Day (Yom Ha'atzmaut) in Israel ...

________________________________________

May 9, 2008 / 4 Iyar 5768

Dear Friends:

I write to you this Friday morning, May 9, 2008, after an extraordinary experience these last four days in our homeland. Indeed, the last forty-eight hours have been among the most moving and inspiring that I have ever experienced. Forty-eight hours ago, Israel began a twenty-four hour period of mourning, as it recalled each and every one of its nearly 23,000 souls, all our own brothers and sisters, who lost their lives defending Israel against those who seek its destruction or at the evil hand of terror directed against Israeli civilians. During the most recent twenty-four hours, the same country and, in many instances, the very same mothers, fathers, spouses, siblings, and children who mourned just hours earlier their inconsolable losses, joined in celebration of Israel's miraculous rebirth as a modern country, taking pride in its accomplishments in just 60 years of existence.

I've lived in Israel. I've mourned and celebrated before, during 48 hour periods quite similar to the past two days. I've visited cemeteries and lain wreathes before. I've held mothers who have lost sons and daughters to war and terror. And then, I have joined with Israel to celebrate the miracle that it represents. Yet, on this trip, the magnitude of the celebration of Israel's 60th Independence Day that followed immediately subsequent to Israel's 60th Memorial Day commemorations initially left me somewhat paralyzed in my attempt to transition from the latter to the former. Each distinct experience was magnified and complicated not only by six decades worth of remembrance and celebration, but, by the presently concurrent terror wrought by Hamas upon the innocent citizens of Sederot and Israel's entire south-southwest quadrant. Add to this the prospects of a nuclear armed Iran that threatens with annihilation this beautiful miracle of life that I gaze upon this morning from my hotel balcony, as I write to you, and the difficulty transitioning from mourning to celebration seems all the more to be the expected norm rather than the exception.

However, as I joined with our brothers and sisters over the last 24 hours -- Israelis of every color and origin, they appeared not to share my difficulty. And so, as I found my own way from mourning to celebration, I learned some things from Israel and from Israelis that might enrich us each and all, as Jews and as Americans.

To begin, let's consider that, in Israel, military cemeteries exist in almost every municipality and are often among the larger cemeteries in each city. Consider that they are overrun with citizens on Memorial Day (Yom Hazikaron). Consider that youth-groups hand out flowers and bottled water to citizens mourning loved ones, acquaintances, and even strangers, all of whom shared, in their death, one thing in common; their lives were taken because they represented the State of Israel and the Jewish People! Consider that it is hard to find a single extended family in the entire State of Israel that has not known the anguish and horror of losing a soul in the Jewish State's endeavor to shelter its children from the treachery of its neighbors. Consider the ages on the tombstones in the military cemetery, a cemetery reflecting the civilian composition and defensive purposes of both Israel's army and Israel's victims: 66, 4, 62, 38, 18, 2, 14, 19, 21, 18, 20, 18, 10, 6 months ... and this is just one row. No family is left unscathed, as Israel's future has been bled of so much of its promise, thinned by its tragic losses. The mourning is collective; the nation is, for a moment, a loving but deeply wounded family. And then, an entire country swings into celebration. A nation finds its voice in song. It revives itself in dance. The celebration is similarly collective. For a moment in time, Israel is one joyous family, basking in the light of its blessings.

Is Israel escaping its terminal sadness, simply avoiding its tragic losses? Perhaps, but, I believe otherwise; the celebration feels too real. Are Israelis simply so overwhelmed by their losses that all that they have left is the pleasure that can be derived in the present-tense of any given moment? Have they conceded to grief, so much so that they can't dare any longer to squander an opportunity for celebration with another moment's despondence? Perhaps, but, the tears of joy seem as honest and deeply drawn as the tears of sorrow; they seem to derive from the same well-spring - one rich with a history of painfully earned achievements by Jews throughout all time.

Israel's dynamic in this transition from mourning to celebration is unique indeed. Israel does not succumb to tragedy; it holds steadfastly onto life! To begin to understand this dynamic, we might consider Memorial Day and Independence Day in our own country, and how it differs from the Israeli experience. For one thing, the two days are calendared over a month apart in the United States; in Israel, they are separated by one minute. In our country, it is rare that anyone knows a veteran personally, let alone someone who gave his/her life for the safety of our country; as noted above, few Israelis can avoid knowing someone who has given his/her life for their country. In America, shopping, sales, and BBQ's mark both days; in Israel, neither day is materially oriented for the overwhelming majority of Israelis and the spiritual and emotional qualities of each day are entirely distinct.

Consider then that the very reason that Israelis celebrate their Independence with a joy that is, perhaps, rivaled only by Mardi Gras (though, Israel is much safer!) is precisely because Israelis mourn genuinely and deeply the tragic and painful losses of those who have enabled their independence as a nation to succeed and continue. Consider that a society that faces daily threats of death and destruction, and mourns the sacrifices that it makes to guard against these, celebrates intuitively, but, profoundly every breath of life.

My dear friends, my Ner Tamid family, Israel knows that life is not only worth living, but, that, when required, it is also worth dying for! Israelis have been left with no choice but to remember that every single life matters immeasurably, but, that self-sacrifice is sometimes necessary to ensure that others live onward. They know that Freedom doesn't come freely, that there is a price for Freedom and Liberty and that, if Heaven forbid it must be paid, all that is thereby retained and earned must be celebrated by those who are remain to celebrate. And, the lives preserved and freedoms sustained are indeed celebrated and lived onward in the very names and memories of those whose losses are mourned, those who gave everyone else another chance to live more life!

Yes, Patrick Henry's spirit lives on -- here in Israel, alongside David Ben-Gurion's. George Washington's spirit lives on -- here in Israel, alongside Yonatan Netanyahu's; Abraham Lincoln's, alongside Golda Meir's, and so on. To appreciate what is worth living for and to appreciate the value of life, it is necessary, from time to time, to consider what is worth our ultimate sacrifice. A free society that doesn't remember that anything is ever worth dying for is one that has forgotten the essence of that which makes life worth living. In the name of peace and freedom, we might avoid conflict, discomfort, and potential loss. For the stated sake of our children and their future, we might appease for the moment a sworn adversary to freedom. However, we must understand - as Jews and as Americans - that any society that gambles its future to secure its present is usurping Freedom's call for its own narcissistic and temporary benefits. Such a society deludes itself when it imagines that it is preserving a future for generations to come; in fact, such an approach may well lead the society to come to sacrifice its children for the momentary comfort of its parents, a cannibalistic price for an illusion of peace. Israel's grudging resolve to pay the price of Freedom today is therefore, in fact, its insurance policy for a tomorrow. Israel therefore celebrates the future, championing it in the spirit of those who have made it, and continue to make it, possible!

The reflections above, alone, might have constituted a sufficiently meaningful reminder on Israel's part for Jews, Americans, and all citizens of the Free World. However, Israelis model for all of us at least one more vitally important lesson: Israelis remind us that guilt is neither helpful nor productive when remembering those who have made the ultimate sacrifice on their behalf. Israel's alternative to guilt is sincere appreciation. Israelis feel a deep thankfulness, an enduring and eternal debt of gratitude, to those who have paid Freedom's price, on Freedom's front-line, for all of us in the Free World. Israelis celebrate Independence Day minutes after the conclusion of Memorial Day because those who paid for Israel's Freedom with their lives would demand nothing less of them -- in their memory!

And so, on Sunday, May 18^th, back home in our synagogue, we will sing and dance together. We will celebrate 60 years of the extraordinary miracle of the modern State of Israel. And, when we do so, we will be grateful for the many sacrifices that have been made by the sons and daughters of this sacred and beautiful land -- for Israel's sake, for the sake of all Jews everywhere, and to the great benefit of every Freedom-loving human being in the world; we will celebrate, with a depth of joy -- in their memory, as they would want us to do so!

With love and blessings from Israel -- Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Isaac Jeret

Spiritual Leader

SPECIAL NOTE: At Rabbi Jeret's invitation, Lt. Col. Ehud Kauf, Israel's Military Liaison to the United States Army, will join us for our ISRAEL @ 60 celebration on Sunday, May 18^th, from 5:00 PM to 8:15 PM. To learn more about our Celebration of Israel's 60^th on Sunday, please click here !