Category: Leah’s Blog

I was sitting by myself in a room full of people in a synagogue in Englewood New Jersey when I realized my life and who I really was. I wanted to shout it out. The chazzan was reading Parshat Pinchas and I was far from home in Itamar where our hill overlooks the very hill of Pinchas. As I looked around the room at the pews and the people and the light shining off the stain glassed windows I tried not to imagine myself pulling all the people with me to the place in my mind. It was like that hectic scene in The Graduate, and in that freezing room I became feverish as I traveled to the views of what and who was being read. The congregants sat unruffled by the text, collected and calm. A zealous act would prove me insane. I sat, unable to sound the siren.

But I soon lifted on a cloud to those delicious pine trees flowering in early July here in Israel, to the scent- clean, real and elevating. A tiny forest of sorts at that, but a wonderful position to view Awarta, the village home from time immemorial to Pinchas, Itamar, Elazar and the seventy elders. The very rocks you stand on tell stories of the past, of ancient times and the mossy stone gravesites that serve as monuments and as a testimony to the true owners of the Land. Huge fig trees are full of fruit in the heat of an open sky here and the land drips honey and milk. My mind wanders and I’m back in my natural habitat…

I dream of another place nearby, the inheritance of the daughters of Tzlofchad who demanded a place as their obligation and received the most beautiful in all of Israel. The wadi of Tirzah or Ein Beidan another name for it. From the peak of Mount Kabir it looks like a grassy maze deep down in the valley. It is hard to climb down from here because of the sheer steepness of it. With water running through it, in early Spring a carpet of pink and white almond blossoms adorn the blanket of land. The path of Avraham, the one he took from Aram Naharayim to Shechem, it is repaved in a primitive way with many potholes and fissures in the road. The air feels warmer here, more balmy. The scent is orange blossom and it feels restful, magical. Bamboo shoots and tall reeds cluster along banks of water. In bygone days King Solomon built summer palaces here, as well as many Canaanite and Israelite kings. The remains of these stone structures sag crumbling next to new mud thatched dwellings that stand leaning into the old ones. The stream flows east, into the Jordan. The Tammun mountains look as bare and tan as a camels back in the backdrop. Occasionally a dark skinned woman would walk by boasting a golden tooth carrying a huge basket on her head. An old man wearing a kaffiyah would lead a donkey or a mule laden with wares. At the turn in the road where a small waterfall emptied into furrows the road would be always wet, even in the hot dry summer. At this scenic shaded corner a huge stone wall was built. Young Arab men could be seen at their corner café on the high porch of the wall drinking their Turkish coffee, playing shesh besh and other games. It seems the picture of ideal tranquility. I awaken from my fantasy. This tucked away seemingly forgotten land was forfieted in the Oslo accords and I can only really dream of it. From Englewood New Jersey and from my home in Itamar only moments away from this scene.

As our story of Zionism changes and morphs before our very eyes – the rise of our own Jewish state- the early years, seemed nothing but a distant dream and it seemed like holy chutzpah to dream it. Today it seems taken for granted. Things are moving fast now and in that fast pace things get hidden, forgotten, some lost. Some are lost because of the deep pain it inflicts to think about them.

The zealous though are able to face that pain, to clarify it and try to fix it. They sound the alarm. This is the message of Pinchas. He was able to shout it out.

Shabbat shalom, Leah

Parshat Chukat   –   June 22, 2018

There are treasures here buried deep under the earth that are waiting to be explored. They sometimes have been formed in primeval times as molten rock and mountains and valleys formed, and at times man- made but also very old, going deep into the ground. To walk a passage under the ground, chiseled into the granite and view the caverns, you ask yourself- with what boring machine did they use? To touch with your own hands and see with your own eyes what innovation really meant for the young new country of Israel thousands of years ago- you wonder at what effort it took to dig all of that. Canaan we know and other nations lived here. It was an old, old Land; the Torah teaches it was Garden of Eden and a river ran through it, the first place.

The Canaani, the Yevusi, the Chitti, the Girgashi, the Cheevee, the Pelishti -all of them lived on the streams and springs of the Land, preventing Israel from having drinking water. So, stones were cleared and the ground was raked, terraces formed along the sides of the mountains because every drop of precious rain counted. Water was crucial for the tribe of Efrayim who lived up on the high point of craggy rocky ground. And Efrayim dug wells and cisterns everywhere. One of the dominant features of the landscape here is hundreds upon hundreds of pits going deep into the black so dark you can’t see a thing. Some have been paved with staircases, probably used for mikvehs. Some have ropes which help us on our way down to explore. Some are covered with a metal grating preventing you from falling in as there is nothing more exciting than leaning down and looking down. Givot Olam Farm here has a perfectly preserved cistern equipped with electric lights nailed into the rocky walls that shine onto the wet green and brown stairs and dark shadows along stone shelves carved into the bedrock. Don’t get distracted by other enormous caverns that lead off from the tunnel; you will feel like you can keep walking and never come to the end. It feels cool in here in the hot summer, and warm and snug in the freezing blustery winter. It feels safe here.

What was it like to live here, to work here, to be thirsty here and to know Hashem’s promise, to follow Him through a Land unsown to the Land of Eden with rivers running through it but that you had to find another way to quench your thirst.

There are some things we just can’t understand and hitting the rock won’t help.

Avraham who was the first to believe walked through the fire in unconditional obedience and readiness to fulfill. He never asked to understand.

Sometimes things happen and Hashem wants you to suck up to it. Israel is a Land that tries you. It makes you thirsty. Maybe the highest level of achieving it is not seeing any sign at all but letting your thirstiness for Hashem over ride it all. Shabbat Shalom!

Parshat Shlach – June 2018

It was in an ancient synagogue in the Galilee that I began to understand the meaning of memory. On that stone floor scoured by wind rain and all the elements that poured into the building that for decades upon decades had no ceiling, did I fully feel all what we remember, joining into deeper and deeper levels of time past.

Memory is a living thing.

On one crumbling remaining wall, amongst decorations of rosettes, garlands and wreaths, the featured motif boasted the First Fruits, or Bikkurim as we call them. Holiness and mystery emanated from the tiny mosaic bunches of grapes, ears of wheat, date palms, olives, pomegranates, figs with their enormous leaves – without a doubt a didactic message to all those worshippers- Destination!- south- to the Temple in Jerusalem. I wonder who the artist was, who instructed it to be the focus on the synagogue wall and more so, what it meant. There in the ancient smell of it, it felt familiar.

The Bikkurim were brought by farmers and dignitaries alike in ancient Israel to be placed near the altar in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. It was a ceremony done in pomp and grandeur. To the Levites song and the tune of the flute, an ox lead the procession wearing gold ornaments, garlands of flowers and all good things, a parade coming around the corner – this was a ceremony of appreciation, of thankfulness, of acknowledging Hashem as well as His agents and it was greeted with much anticipation. It was a mark of a story unfolding, a story that started way back.

In your imagination you could go out to meet them.

The Arizal, a great Kabbalist and Rabbi of the middle ages teaches out that the mitzvah of Bikkurim is actually the rectification of the sin of the spies. Instead of loving the taste of the sweet sap, enjoying the healing bark, roots and shade of the leaves of the tree they could not recognize the good good Land. Instead of beholding the beauty of the golden fields of barley and the vineyards full; the sense of lushness and abundance were mistaken for scary and the intuition that should have been pregnant with ripe possibilities saw strangeness. They spied the land and brought back a bad report. Not only was it tunnel vision but it also became the lesson these leaders came to share- “We cannot go up and conquer it!” “Let’s toss it.” Twelve leaders were sent and ten failed in their mission. This was a historical sin. For every day of the forty days they were in the Land, a year of punishment for that generation in heeding the false words – forty years in the desert. That generation did not enter the Land.

If we go back like we go back because what goes around comes around, even before we became a nation in Egypt, a similar story happens to the family of Israel. Yosef has a dream and his shaft of wheat stands in the field but he is not recognized. His brothers, ten of them come to say he is strange and scary. They toss him in a pit the very same day the spies later come to bring their bad report, Tisha Ba’Av.

We fall , we rise and in Hashem’s grace and mercy He gives another chance.

Fast forward to today when we read this parsha thousands of years later in the Land they were so mistaken about, in the Land they said we had no chance in reaching and attaining. There are those who don’t get goose bumps when seeing the houses, the fields, the people busy in them. They do not recognize the clock ticking to the hour of full swing in time, to the place restored. I pray they can attain it.       Shabbat Shalom! Leah Goldsmith

Leah’s Blog   Jerusalem Day -2018 – 5778

This day has me crying literally from happiness. Maybe the victory speech Neta Barzilay gave last night at the Eurovision contest said it all. She shouted not about her own personal self or about culture and the nonsense that seems to decorate these events, but “I love my country! Next year in Jerusalem!” The crowd went wild. It was a hard night for BDS and all the other forces in the world that try to hold Israel back from revealing itself as we stand with a spine and as a concert hall as big as Madison Square Garden full of Europeans from every country on the globe cheered for the sake of Jerusalem. Israel is shining its light to the world and there is no stopping her. Today we focus on Jerusalem, the heart of our national identity, the heart of the world. This is truly Mother’s Day.

As we walk down the narrow cobblestone streets of Jerusalem, stop to see the archeological digs going on in the City of David, to view the clairvoyant beauty from the Mount of olives, celebrate in the newest hangout of the city, the cave of Zidkiyahu, behold new gleaming buildings going up all over the city, the Herodian awe inspiring vibe, we recall the verse that Hillel says, “If I am not for myself than who am I? But if I am ONLY for myself, who and what am I?” All of this is meant to be shared, as the lighthouse for the world, the portal to a higher existence.

As a second-generation holocaust survivor and the head of an organization created for healing the effects of terrorism against innocent Jewish victims and as a woman, my heart beats today even more rapidly as Hashem reveals His face on a daily basis more and more like the sun rising, it is getting brighter and the clarity of the day cannot be ignored. Israel has us like dreamers reaping after many years of blood sweat and tears.

Rabbis! At the same time- Israel is being attacked on all sides! From the north, from the south, from every direction! From within! There is an enemy that wants to hold a curtain over the light, to hurt us. The only safe place is the high ground here in the heartland! I’m talking to you- Rabbis who will remain un- named because I don’t want to shame your communities! You- who endorsed Hillary Clinton! You- who shamed the greatest President of the United States! You- who turned your back on us when we came to your communities at the turn of two thousand at the height of the intifada when our holy sites became garbage dumps and hundreds of Jewish victims needed you. Salvation hardly came from you as you turned your backs and backed liberal Democrats who sided with the Devil. One of things I wanted to tell your people was what it meant for us to grow with our country but more so to show how our country is growing with us. I came to encourage at that hard time. I came to share the crack in that that darkness, of a tremendous light about to pour out. I came to talk about the verse in Isaiah “In it’s time I will hasten it!”- About the quickness of Israel perfecting, being the best, about changes taking place as the wakening from below ignites the awakening from above, about the grape vines and the softening of the harsh vista. Israel is not the shloomper country you are so scared about like the spies in the desert who perceived the times of redemption all WRONG! Rabbis, why shame Bibi Netanayahu? Why portray him as a bad leader? Why equate the terror of Iran and its proxies to me building a room onto my house – how it came to be perceived the stability of the Middle East rested on a Jew’s retreat?

With patriotic integrity we can also as a country say, “MEE-TOO” like the message in Neta Barzilay’s song- we refuse to be raped abused and under -valued for who we are -a nation of Kings and Queens. Our deep Zionist roots demand us to take the stand now in leadership as we share about our goat yogurts, cherry tomatoes, and return to Torah values. This week Israel is signing a multi-billion-dollar deal with the European Union for us to sell them natural gas. A pipeline is being built right now as we speak under the ground of the ocean that will connect to Cyprus, Greece, Italy and into all of Europe where THEY will be buying gas from US! The days of Mashiach! The earth burns here at the same time as terror kites fly over from Gaza with the sole intention of burning G-d’s land. The dichotomy of reality has a clear intention- the hour calls- It wants YOU to take a stand- This is our land! This is our Jerusalem!

Leah’s Blog – May 4 2018

It is not boring in this part of the world! A truck drives from the nuclear reactor in Iran straight to the headquarters of the Mossad in Tel Aviv carrying all the necessary documents and discs of incriminating evidence that blows the Obama cash flow appeasement theory into smithereens all in one night. It will make the next best movie after Wonder Woman I am sure, and I would first love to see the real life agent. This week hundreds of Iranian missiles intended for Tel Aviv were destroyed in Syria, not far from our Golan Heights. Little Israel whose territory is like one percent of the Persian Dynasty. Little Israel, whose nation compares to one percent of the population of China. Baruch Hashem Israel is standing tall.

There were other blow outs as well this week as finally The New York Times in an eye opening statement said The head of the PLO oh, I mean the Palestinian Authority, Machmoud Abbass should be admonished and removed for his statements against our nation. AHADAH! AHDAH! Is it possible that the ostriches are taking their heads out of the sand finally? What is causing this shift in the world? I shudder when remembering the fiasco of Oslo, the one that gave one hundred percent of the territory of Gush Katif to our most bitter enemies, of those beautiful thriving communities as well as other places in the Shomron all sold there on the White House lawn – sold for fire, for missiles, and for terror tunnels, for devastation. Today our southern border is on fire literally. So, we stand straight but we also limp because of stupid mistakes that we made in the past. We don’t want to limp anymore. Enough is enough.

This week in Israel the Tomb of Joseph was renovated. I don’t think it was a coincidence. Yosef revealed himself as his brother Judah took responsibility and rectified.

Part of recognizing truth is also admitting it. It’s recognizing the lie and rectifying it.

“with their own eyes they will see when G-d returns to Zion” -a quote from the prophet (Isa 52:8) referring to being able to see truth in the repair of Israel. This comes at the time of the awakening from below- when truth suddenly dawns.

This week another dimension of all that is happening here in Israel- Gyro D’Italia- a lucrative biking experience that has hundreds of the worlds professional bike riders swishing through the Land through Tel Aviv, Yerushalayim, Haifa, Caesarea, Beer Sheva, Mitzpeh Ramon, Eilat and other places in a show of solidarity with G-d’s Land. 350 million people will be watching the cyclists as they race for the first time out of the boundary of Europe.

Tasmania has decided to open an embassy in Israel and five other countries are moving their embassies to Jerusalem. We have to thank President Trump for taking the initiative in recognizing Jerusalem as our eternal capital and starting the domino effect of old paradigms falling like dominoes as new ones stand tall without limping. I am sure next week will bring even more exciting news and I hope to share only good news with you from now on! I want to personally thank Friends of Itamar for all of your love and care. On our last trip to the USA Moshe and I asked our you to partner with us in planting trees. Just yesterday on Lag Ba’omer in your merit we were able to continue to fulfill the blessing as it says in the Torah, “For the Lord your G-d is bringing you into a good Land, a Land of wheat and barley, vines, figs, and pomegranates, a Land of olive oil and honey.” We as a community went to an area designated for a communal garden outside our synagogue and planted with our youth a new orchard of fruit trees. Thank you! This has been an amazing opportunity to answer the call in making the heartland of Israel right here on Itamar blossom – the repair in our hearts was truly felt and the restoration will bring also you a great blessing!

Shabbat Shalom! Leah

Dearest Jodie, I’ll start with a story for you because I know how much you loved that.

In 1954 Prime Minister David Ben Gurion took a trip to the United States to meet with President Eisenhower to ask for his assistance and support in the hard hours facing the young and vulnerable State of Israel. In one of their meetings he met with the then Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles who was very skeptical of Americas involvement in return to Zion. Dulles asked Ben Gurion who he was representing exactly as Jews lived in many places like Romania, America, Brazil, Poland, Iraq, Yemen and Russia. He asked if they were all the same and if they all one nation; did they have a common culture and share the same heritage. Ben Gurion answered him with a question. “Look sir,” he said. ” 200 years ago a ship sailed from England called the Mayflower and the people that came off that ship were the first ones to settle what would be the United States of America. Go out to the streets and ask ten young people the name of the ship’s captain, how long the journey took, what they ate, how long the journey took. Chances are – you are not going to get exact answers. Now, as far as your question- over 3,300 years ago the Jews left Egypt. On your travelings as the secretary of State around the world, ask ten young Jewish people who led them out, what they ate and how long it took, finally- where did they go? You will get an answer I’m sure.”

Jodie, your Judeo-Christian heritage was so important to you. You were strongly rooted into the mountains of Israel. You were a woman of truth and you devoted your life to honoring it. Your life was exciting, lively, and at times chaotic I am sure as you managed so many things for bringing lovingkindness to Israel and her people. I think you have impacted literally thousands of people and I was blessed to be one of them. You were inspiring yet very down to earth and innovative. Mostly what I felt in you was that your love had no boundaries. The day the tomb of Josef was burnt to the ground I saw it from Itamar and you heard it from the top of Mount Gerizzim. You said you could not and would not believe it when they told you it was firecrackers. You climbed over barbed wire to get closer to the heart of Israel because those that love Hashem truly know no boundaries. You loved every inch of Israel from the Jordan to the sea and I’m sure much more. Your understanding of it matched my heart and in tumultuous times of war and strife you knew peace and brought peace to those that needed it. You loved the sun drenched hills, the wonderful vineyards and the warm brilliance you can only get here but you were willing to stand in the freezing wind and the mud if you had to, a woman of valor dearest Jodie. The battalions of Deborah were an eye opening event in my life that I will cherish forever.

Jodie you passed away on the Netzach of Netzach – the days we count from Passover to Shavuot are fifty and every day has its own uniqueness. Netzach means overcoming boundaries- how apropos. You overcame your physical boundary now but you are in Gan Eden now with all the angels. Please look out for us from there and know you are also here with us. I will miss your smile, your cuteness, your friendship more than words can say.

Yihee zichreych baruch – Love, Leah

The unconditional love of a mother for her baby begins even before the birth, as she is pregnant with this new life and pregnant with lots of thoughts about it. Everybody loves a good fast birth when the time comes! Raising that baby can have many slow moments too and as a parent you need to see and have supernatural power at times to get through tough times. There is no easy way out. Morphing from an embryo to a baby to a child to an adult is a process that takes the potential and makes it actual. It takes that person and his parent through an unsown Land.

Leaving Egypt is compared to a birth. Every person that gushed out of there in that sense of urgency was loved unconditionally. Mothers and fathers love their babies as they whine, scream, teeth, get sick, get well, and the whole adorable process as they turn into adults. They protect their child and of course infuse in them the right balance of lovingkindness but also the ability to fight back when necessary. They teach them righteousness. That was Hashem for us in the exodus and the entire 42 stops in the desert. There was disappointment I’m sure as we whined for food, screamed for water, complained- “Where is Moses!”. We walked and fell many times and Hashem held our hands in open miracles.

It was there, right around that bend in the path that Abraham took leading to the Jordan that things took a turn. On that sunny day in Nissan as we clocked in and got ready for Passover, it meant that it is not just about leaving but about coming in. It was about “Don’t cross the river if you can’t swim to the other side.” The mann stopped falling and the burnt Passover meat and matzoh took on a new meaning. It was actual food. We had to cook for ourselves and fight our own battles. Entering the Land of Hashem’s benevolence, everything seemed natural and as adults the fairy tales seemed to end. Israel set the table for themselves. Leaving Moses behind it was time to set up house.

The seder for me is a lesson in not only leaving a place, but also about going somewhere. With Hashem’s help always, our destiny is to Israel, the Land of revelation, a supernatural place that just seems so natural because in exile Hashem is concealed, therefore needs to at times be a superhero. In Israel you see Him in every aspect of your life, and also to live in such a time as now that we can actually say this is where we are headed – because Hashem has made a beautiful renovated home on our original ancient ruins. Geula is not a fairy tale where some angel is gonna bring a new Jerusalem out of the sky but its about taking responsibility to make it happen.

Ideally when your kids become adults you’ve been able to enable.

This is the lesson of Pesach. It doesn’t come without asking at least four questions and having drunk at times four cups of wine. It doesn’t succeed without hiding some of your stuff for them to find a bit later and eating a great big meal after discussing your roots as a family and as a nation.

Shabbat shalom! Chag Sameyach!

Leah’s Blog   March 9 2018 – In honor of International Women’s Day

Her strong and shining voice came to be the greatest influence on my life.

The wonders of my imagination had me at the age of four on a high – high, whenever I opened up the black and gold album cover with the Hebrew words on it “ירושלים של זהב” and listened to the song “Jerusalem of Gold” by Naomi Shemer. She wrote that song for that amazing day that Jerusalem’s pieces were collected and revived from her own personal perspective and of her own memories of the golden city. Her outstanding voice, the expression of the feeling of that miraculous time rung into my very impressionable and young soul and had a heart beating that matched my own. The lyrical and musical quality of her songs brought me into the true prophecy of joy ecstasy and more than anything, thanksgiving. The sake of glorifying Jerusalem in His name through that melody, to seek Jerusalem- became my first childlike prayer. Up and up I went into the golden towers, the gilded walls, Jerusalem sparkled like a bracelet and now it seemed with -in reach.

Naomi Shemer integrated numerous biblical and traditional Jewish themes into her songs like “Father’s song – May the Temple be Built” and “The song of the Grasses” by Rabbi Nachman of Breslov. I began to grow up and continued to play her album over and over again. I could taste the tastes and smell the scent of Jerusalem every time I did. She had me infected, addicted and more than anything she infused into every person who heard her song a yearning to go to Israel and to redeem it. Revival is the only word I have for her description of “The trees and stones softly slumber, the return to the ancient water holes and to a wall stuck smack in the middle of all of this.” I had to have this.

Naomi Shemer’s works are the subject of speculation today. People now say her symbolic phrases expressed an even greater yearning for more. Her inner voice was a national token but also it was the voice of a woman with a strong message that chimed Jewish pride, pioneering spirit and connecting us to prophecy that touched the hearts of millions of people around the world; me being one of them. Her outstanding vocals were like a déjà vu in my own adult life as the imagination she sparked became my own reality as I was able to with the grace of Hashem return to the “old water cisterns and the mountain air as clear as water”, and even the wall.

My prayer today is that we as Jews will be able to practice full religious freedom in Jerusalem on the mountain so sacred to us. Ironically, the holier the place, the more we need to overcome walls and barriers that prevent us from it. We are striving as we thank Hashem for MORE, being that we are still on the way. Like the album cover, black and gold- there were other significant nuances always in the backdrop in the time of Naomi Shemer that we cannot ignore; being the bombs, the dangers, the soldiers who risked their lives and gave their lives for our Jerusalem. There was a darkness even as the light shined that all the more so augmented it even greater. I came to understand what a watchman on the walls meant; and it meant to literally stand on that wall and help with my own life and my own soul to preserve what is ours.

More than anything, Naomi Shemer taught me that Jewish identity is connected to time and place and what better time than now to know that to be a Jew means to fight for our own rights, because if I am not for myself, then who am I?-, and also that a woman can be a significant mashpiah!

Shabbat Shalom!

Like a big fish in a small pond, Pharoh ruled from his throne on the Nile. As this watering place replenished itself (and there was no need to pray for rain) it invoked a climate of opinion that the world was a self sustained place. Of course Pharoh took complete credit for it, no-one negated this since there was no free choice. “Ani Asitani- I created myself” was what he told his kingdom. Holding up his mirror, he already had a hard heart.

The Egyptians were experts in metaphysics. By using necromantic techniques, like turning sticks into snakes and other methods of waving a wand, they created a society so steeped in idolatry – there was no other like it in the world. To this setting the Bnei Yisrael arrive and sink within three generations to the almost final level of Tum-ah. The mood of so mean hearted a place was thick with heresy. Nevertheless, the ball started rolling and sure enough, the Bnei Yisrael come to the realization that they must get off the ground of Egypt.

Parshat Bo, with the last of the plagues, focuses on the finite differences between the Egyptians and the Bnei Yisrael. The curtain that prevented Egypt from knowing G-d inevitably brought a great darkness to them which eventually led to the falling of their empire. – “And there was a great darkness in all of the land of Mitzrayim for three days. They saw not one another but the children of Israel had light…” As the children of Israel acted as free men and not bound in the shackles of their minds, they amassed more and more perception in their knowledge of G-d. They acquired the vessels that enabled them to hold the light. So, for one it was darkness and the other – light. This was no magic trick – two separate features, light and darkness materialized simultaneously. The Egyptians saw no-one because they banished the light, denying G-d.

Our Rabbis bring down a very important torah here- Heaven and Hell are also in the same place and the same time. It is up to you to decide where you are and what to do when you get there.

The light that was internalized eventually increased in the backdrop of darkness, connecting to the idea of the mitzvah of Parshat Bo- Kiddush HaChodesh, when the Beit Din declares a new moon via witnesses that come to testify in the Temple. That confirmation determines the sanctity of the Jewish Time table and its holidays (to this day!). This is likened to the beginning of the revelation process, starting with a sliver of light and continuing with more and more light every night. In the plague of darkness, the children of Israel held the light high. This light increased when they hastened out of Egypt and reached the climax when they reached the Red Sea, reaching the hour of complete faith. The light at that hour became so great – it was then that they became a light unto the nations: See Joshua 2:9 when Rachav says: “I know that the Lord has given you the land and your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away because of you. For we have heard how the Lord has dried up the waters of the Sea of Suf before you when you came out of mitzrayim… for the Lord your G-d, He is G-d in heaven above, and on the earth beneath.”

Shabbat Shalom, Leah Goldsmith

We do a lot of remembering and dreaming in our lives. The two seem almost intertwined. I have all these ideas shooting down like in a pin- ball machine. Kling Kling Kling! Even THAT is a memory, potent, bright and bringing with it other “lightbulbs” shooting down memory lane and ringing when I realize things.

In these Parshas Yosef remembers his dreams .When his brothers came to stand around and eat of his hand he remembered them. This even goes back to an earlier time when Hashem remembered Rachel when Yosef himself was conceived, meaning that it’s not so much that something happened already, but that something is about to happen.

Memory transcends time as our dreams transcend the confined rational physical limits of our lives .

“And we would be like dreamers in our return to Zion.”

In our religion, we are given many opportunities to remember and are commanded NOT TO FORGET. On Purim we remember Amalek, on Passover we remember Yitziat Mitzrayim and becoming a nation, on Shavuot we remember the giving of the Torah and that each and every one of us was there! We remember the Sabbath and the six days of creation, taking rest for one seventh of our week. These days of Chanukah have us remembering our holy Temple that stood for hundreds of years in Jerusalem in the celebration of belief in one G-d, overcoming pagan influences and sharing the true light with the world as it seemed that all the odds were against us.

The culture of Hellenism was adapted from ancient Egypt giving credit to human logic, analytical and rational gain through labor and hard work with an emphasis on beauty philosophy and political strategic realism. Religion was designed for belief in mythical pagan earthly monuments and in many cases worship involved the antithesis of our Torah values. Yosef Hatzaddik and the Maccabees shared a joint mission – to influence belief in one G-D, teaching that Providence works side by side with the practical in the pragmatic world. Yosef comes to teach that in the strategies of building storehouses, collecting and preserving supernatural amounts of grain and creating a system that kept society in tact he was actually the personal link of connecting the heavens and the earth, of taking something material and blowing holiness into it. He dreamt about it!

Pharoh has dreams too. So do his stewards. But they can’t interpret them.

Yosef comes to shine like a candle burning in a blackened room as he says, “Hashem will solve it.”

Later when we begin Sefer Shmot the Torah goes on to tell us that a new King took over Egypt that did not remember Yosef. On the final plague that was later to come, the blackness of that night had no candle burning in the dark and the cynical rational way of not remembering had Pharoh and his house never dreaming again.

Remembering Jerusalem and dreaming of it proves that what appears to be mythical and legendary is actually Divine and sublime. It can be and IS above logic. As a State, Israel is brimming over with potential. As theories are brought into practice on a daily basis and transactions that supercede way beyond what we are able to know from CNN The New York Times or NBC -there is a force you feel here coming alive day by day, minute by minute, on a practical and spiritual plane!

The Jewish people remember the dream. Now the candle burning flickers into a new reality because as we remember, our dreams are coming true.

Something happened already. And something is about to happen.

Have a beautiful bright and enlightening Chag.

Chanukah Sameyach!