Thursday 14 June 2012

A Jewish nation of refugees

Every year, on the Second Day of Rosh Hashannah, the Jewish world intones the comforting words of the prophet Jeremiah, a prophecy meant to remind us that the people once left for ruin, will again find comfort and peace in the land of Israel.
Koh amar Adonai: Matza chein bamidbar am s’ridei charev, halokh l’hargi’o Yisrael.
“Thus saith the Lord; the people that were left of the sword have found grace in the wilderness, even Israel, when I go to cause him rest.”
These words, foretelling an ultimate return of the Jewish people to their ancestral homeland after the destruction of the First Temple, have become a ubiquitous clarion call for our people: a reminder that though we were once a people of dispersion, despair and Diaspora – we have now established a haven of grace in the wilderness.
Yes, unfortunately the Jewish people know what it means to be an “am s’ridei charev,” “a people who were left of the sword.” We were forced to run away from thousands of swords for the better part of two millennia; so surely our collective memory mandates that we harbor a love for the stranger, the widow, and the orphan – the refugees who live in our midst. Readmore

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