Friends of Itamar

Leah’s Blog Yom Kippur 2024

Leah’s Blog – Yom Kippur תשפה –  – October 2024

There are signs of endurance laced throughout our lives. My own father- whose yartzeit is on Yom Kippur walked it and lived it. Moshe Ben Yaakov ZT”L met the burning bush in Poland when his entire family and village of Nisko Poland saw every Jew but himself and two others perish. He was but a boy when this happened and he spoke about his survival unabashed adding his wonderful memories of synagogue, his grandfather, the table at festivals and all the things that make you Jewish. The theme of his life was Jewish Pride. My father had a great vibe and was full of handsomeness and charisma. Not the bent over Jew – he saw the burning bush. He carried the flame of Judaism with him and passed it down to his children. This is the meaning of the burning bush- the ner tamid in our Temple.

“I will be with you and this will be the sign that I have sent you, a burning bush that is not consumed”. In hebrew- this is what it says on my father’s stone on Har Hamenuchote in Jerusalem.

אוד מוצל מאש

My father’s story is a personal one of fortitude and courage – the DNA of the Jewish people. We are all linked on a long chain that goes back to our forefathers who par example lived nisayone, dealt with evil and overcame; of our Matriarchs who await the sons return to our land. These are all stories of self- sacrifice and tenacity. Soon after Yom Kippur we enter the Sukkah of protection and meet the Ushpizin- our forefathers who each had their own particular test, tribulation, war, coping in even the relationships they had within the family. Their will to come out of the burning furnace and make it to the other side is our original imprint. Our souls are being recreated from their first kernels and now we are making the full circle in time. The imprint of Yaakov wrestling the angel there by the Jordan and limping away to independence and more challenges, more dramas as the Land covenant ever increasingly teaches us Hashem is giving it to us but we have to earn it. We have to fight for it.

Now more than ever it is time to strengthen Israel– return to Zion is seeing to that; evil insists on erasing it – we rise like the lion and prevail – in the merit of our fathers and forefathers. This is the time to illuminate- not assimilate! It is a war on all fronts,

The bush is burning yet we endure.

This is the struggle for consciousness.

There is one particular day- Yom Kippur- a day of complete return to Hashem, where you meet G-d and make it to the other side.

May you all have a gmahr chatimah tova, a wonderful New Year of health, celebration, and all goodness. I invite you to direct your Pidyone kaparote charity towards us as we continue to secure and develop Yishuv Itamar at this protracted period of war in Israel. Here in the heartland of Israel we are digging in even deeper in order to ensure that Israel can never implode! With boots on the ground here it takes a lot of work. See the link below to donate-

https://touritamarsupportisrael.com/donate/

Shabbat shalom and blessings to all of our dear friends