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Hopes & Prayers And The Chaos We All Share By Lynn Wexler
Avinu Malkeinu, Shma Koleinu, Hus V’Rahem Aleinu … Hear our voice. Help us hear the voices of others whose stories and tragedies are different. Help them hear ours. Avinu Malkeinu … have pity for what we do and are and try and fail at, and what we give ourselves too much credit for. Give us permission to start again. Give us, this day, a break. Avinu Malkeinu, haneinu v’aneinu, ki ein lanu ma’asim … God who created human differences and human disagreement and human compromise, show us Your face in the faces of the people we call our enemy. Show them Your face in ours. Show us what we least want to see: That we look the same. Avinu Malkeinu, Aseh Imanu Tz’dakah V’Hesed, V’Hoshieinu … We talk big, but we are, all of us, small, fallible and wounded. Teach us to grow tired of our own lies. Avinu Malkeinu, hoshiyeinu … Rescue us from ourselves. Rosh Hashanah reminds us that unity with family, friends, colleagues, communities, countries, races and religions is fundamental. The horrific consequences of disunity are all too evident in the world near and far.
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reams and hopes are wonderful aspirations, even if life’s many disappointments and our own blunders dare to thwart them – and our faith. The constant courage needed to face and rectify our mistakes can seem unattainable. Therein lies the meaning and beauty of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. It is the season for earnest introspection, a genuine cry for forgiveness: hope of clearing the year’s debris for another chance at life. Through fervent prayer, Rosh Hashanah holds the prospect of spiritual rebirth to follow our dreams for another year; to hope for God’s good grace; to believe in our ability to heed the call of duty to achieve our unique purpose for goodness. Jewish tradition teaches that Rosh Hashanah is also a universal holiday – one that celebrates the creation of all humanity. Throughout the daylong observance of ritual reflection, the sounds of the shofar (ram’s horn) are intended to awaken listeners to collective
truths, those essential in creating a just and unified world. Avinu Malkeinu (our Father, our King) is a Jewish prayer sung during services on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (Jewish Day of Atonement), and during the Ten Days of Repentance between the two holidays. Its passionate renderings lead us to the higher calling of unity, self-forgiveness, obligations to humankind, the meaning of life and the knowledge that all of us are inextricably bound. Israel’s national anthem, Hatikvah (hope), represents hope for millions of Jews and non-Jews who claim her as their home. They hope their fears from a life of disunity will one day transform into dreams of peace and harmony. May this New Year be one in which all nations and religions work together to rid hatred, to heal pain and injustice, and to transform the world into the unified essence it is meant to be.
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Chaya Chaya lives in the Old City of Jerusalem with her husband, and their son Moshe. They made aliyah (immigration to Israel) 10 years ago from the United States. The artist and photographer is devoted to her family and religion. “I hope my son will inherit a world at peace,” she says, “so that he will be safe and that I will no longer have to fear for him. I also dream that all the Jews in the world will eventually come to live in the Land of Israel, and that this blessing will result in the coming of the Messsiah. May this happen this coming year, in my lifetime.”
Natanel and Lanir Natanel and Lanir are Chasidic Jews, born and raised in Jerusalem. These proud, first-time parents are shown leaving Hadassah’s Ein Kerem Hospital with their infant daughter. “Until the baby naming we will call her ‘Princess.’ Our most profound dream is to bring our children up in the Jewish tradition. We hope that this will guide them in their paths to become a blessing to the world and a joy for their parents.” www.davidlv.com | SEPTEMBER 2014
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Khaled Khaled is a sixth-generation Palestinian living and working in Israel. He owns a corner grocery store in a neighborhood adjacent the Carmel Market in Tel Aviv. “My hope and dream in the coming year is that sadness will not follow me all of my days,” he says. “Israel has been good to me, but the conflict with Gaza has not. I have family in Gaza that I have not been able to see since 2005. I worry for them. I lose sleep. I just want there to be peace in the coming year. But I have lost hope for this. It’s very sad.”
Eliav and Shira Eliav and Shira are newlyweds. Eliav, serving with the Israeli army, is on a short leave from the fighting in Gaza. He and his wife share a brief kiss and embrace before he returns to the front. “My dream for the coming year is that there should be no more war, no more fighting, and no more death,” he says. “My hope is that I never again witness so much death, particularly that of my friends. They have given up their lives. They will never realize their hopes and dreams. They have been taken from us forever. They will not return. I will miss them.” 52 SEPTEMBER 2014 | www.davidlv.com
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Musa Musa, a secular Turkish Muslim, has lived in Israel for 29 years. After the death of his first wife in Turkey, he met and married an Israeli Arab woman and moved to Israel. He and his Jewish partner own a shawarma shop near Yafo, next to Tel Aviv. “I am tired of living with the constant stress and strife that characterizes the insanity of the Middle East,” he says. “It has made me grow older than I am. I love my country of origin, but who can live in a place where there are no human rights and dignity? Terrible things have happened to my family there. We were once on our way to establishing freedoms, but then it went away with a new political regime. Israel took me in. For this I am most grateful. My dream is that I will find peace of mind in my lifetime, inshallah (God willing).”
Moshe Moshe is a taxi driver in Jerusalem, and a fifth-generation Sabra (Jews born in the historical region of Mandatory or Ottoman Palestine prior to it becoming the state of Israel in 1948). His ancestors migrated from Yemen. “My hope for the new year is that I will regain my dream in the possibility of peace between Israelis and Palestinians in my lifetime. For now it is a lost cause. I have not changed my views. I have only lost my hopes. The deferral of a dream is at the heart of my great sadness. I pray that my lost cause, which does not make it a wrong cause, will be found in the New Year.” www.davidlv.com | SEPTEMBER 2014
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Samar Samar is a Coptic Christian from Egypt and has lived in Israel since 1984. She and her late husband fled their homeland to escape the decrees of the Coptic Orthodox Church prohibiting pilgrimage to Jerusalem. “It was our dream at that time to be able to go to the tomb of Jesus Christ in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City, Jerusalem,” she says. “The Church held that we should not abandon our Palestinian and Arab brothers by traveling to Israel. It is my hope that baseless hatreds should end so that we can live in peace and without fear of retribution, and that we should be celebrated for who we are and not despised for our differences.”
54 SEPTEMBER 2014 | www.davidlv.com
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