May 24, 2024 / 16 Iyyar 5784
My great great grandfather, Wolf Cohen, was born in Jerusalem in 1870. According to family lore, he left the land of Israel, then under Ottoman rule, at the age of 18 and made his way to Rumania where he met and married my great great grandmother Bessie Rosenzweig. Together they came to the US early in the twentieth century, raised a family, and built a life.
Nearly a century and a half later, our son Josh made aliyah, returning to the land of Israel to build his life. There he met and married his beloved, our daughter in law, Dani Spivack. This morning (5:02 am local time) Dani gave birth to their first son, our first grandchild, the first sabra in our family in seven generations!
Nomi and I don’t yet know our grandson’s name, but we do know that he has loving, wonderful parents, and he looks pretty good besides! Since you’re about to ask – 3 kg/47 cm which is to say 6.6 lbs/18.5 in. We are beyond grateful and simply overjoyed. And we can’t wait to meet him in the coming days.
Parashat Behar includes some quite famous words: “You are to hallow the year, the fiftieth year, and proclaim freedom (dror) throughout the land and to all its inhabitants; it shall be Homebringing (yoveil) for you: you are to return, each-man to his holding, each-man to his clan you are to return.” Yes, these are also the words on the Liberty Bell, just in a different translation: “Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land Unto All the Inhabitants thereof.”
R Moshe ben Nahman (Spain/Israel 13th century, known as Ramban) understands ‘Homebringing (yoveil)’ to mean the bringing about of dror (freedom or liberty). Says Ramban, here’s what the whole verse means: “it is a year which ‘brings’ [liberty] and it shall be so to all of you, that you shall come and return every one unto their possession, and every one unto their family.”
Ramban’s reading strikes me as the perfect prayer for this moment. May this Shabbat bring liberty and freedom to those held hostage, to all suffering – Israelis and Gazans – as a result of this terrible war; may all and each return to their home and to their family.
Ramban concludes his comment with a beautiful (and according to him mystical) allusion to the generations. “d’ror (liberty) is related to the expression, ‘dor’ (a generation) passes away, ‘v’dor’(and a generation) comes. Similarly, yoveil means that everyone will return to the yoveil (source) whence their roots are, and this shall be unto you, [until that time].”
Wolf Cohen’s generation (7 ago) is long gone. Our grandson’s generation is just now arriving. May their arrival signal and motivate a return to essence and source (shoresh) for all of us.
Shabbat Shalom.
Rabbi David
