I’m writing this at the end of Yom Ha’atzma’ut evening, regretting the fact that I had a very unproductive day yesterday, and couldn’t settle to anything. Fortunately, I have a pretty good idea of the direction I want to go in this evening, or rather the directions I want to wander off in, so I’m hoping this will be one of those posts that virtually writes itself. [Blogger’s hindsight note: It wasn’t!]

In these difficult and challenging times, I hope I can bring you two or three rays of sunshine this week. First of all, I know that several of you were very concerned when you watched Micha’el’s YouTube video discussing his not yet having succeeded with his water pump. So, I’m glad to offer you a link to his latest video, where he seems to be in a better place, even if the objective situation has not changed dramatically. I hope it puts your mind at ease.

Next, the first of two surprises that I had today. Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health has revised down figures for the number of women and children confirmed killed in the conflict: the children from 14,500 to 7,797 and the women from 9,500 to 4,959. The revised totals first appeared on the website of the UN’s office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (Ocha), The website was quick to state that the revised figures had been produced by the Hamas ministry and had not been verified by the UN. (I somehow don’t seem to remember the UN questioning Hamas’ original figures, before they were revised downward, but there you are.)

Today’s second surprise was the official ceremony marking the transition from yesterday’s Yom Hazikaron (the Remembrance Day for the Martyrs of Israel’s Wars and the Victims of Terror Attacks) to today’s Yom Ha’atzma’ut (Independence Day). In a normal year, this is a dramatic transition from grief to celebration. However, in a normal year, the transition seems in a sense natural, with the fallen being, in the powerful metaphor of Nathan Alterman, the silver salver on which the state of the Jews was given “to you”.

I believe I have mentioned previously that there has been a long-running public debate about how, and even whether, Yom Ha’atzma’ut should be marked this year. In the end, the traditional official ceremony was held, with several adjustments in light of the situation. One of the organisations representing the families of the hostages held an alternative ceremony near Binyamina at the same time. Where the central part of the official ceremony is the lighting of twelve beacons by figures each chosen to represent some aspect of the particular year’s theme, the alternative ceremony featured the extinguishing of eleven beacons and the lighting of one only, in honour of the abductees.

Bernice and I watched the official ceremony, as we always do, and I was, I confess, very impressed. The decision had been taken to record the ceremony in advance, with no audience, rather than, as is usually done, to stage it live in front of an invited and enthusiastic audience.  The official reason given for this change was the security situation. My suspicion is that the actual reason was to avoid the potential embarrassment to the government of any disruption to the ceremony by protestors. Whatever the reason, the result was a more sombre atmosphere, which seemed very appropriate.

There were several other changes to the usual program. Normally, the first part of the ceremony, closing Yom Hazikaron, is fairly short. This year, it lasted over half an hour, and included the lighting of twelve beacons, each at a different one of the sites where the horrendous events of October 7 took place, and each commemorating one or more of those who were killed on that day. The lighters of the beacons were accompanied, in each site, by survivors and relatives of those killed, who stood in silence. This was a powerful set of images, which gave a sense of the scale of the pogrom on October 7. Bernice remarked that “we will never get over this”; I felt compelled to add: “but we will get through it.”

This section of the ceremony ended at Reim, the site of the Nova dance party. Then the cameras returned to Mt Herzl, where the main ceremony was being held, and the transition to Yom Ha’atma’ut began. This featured an excellent speech from the Speaker of the Knesset, stressing the need for national unity, and a recorded speech from the Prime Minister. This was followed by the beacon-lighting ceremony. Whereas normally only one person lights each beacon (or occasionally two people), each of the beacons this year was lit by three, four or five people. The theme this year was a collective representation of Israeli heroism, and, again, the beacon lighters were, unusually, each accompanied by a group of tens of colleagues from whatever branch they represented, be it first responders, police, hospital staff, defence-system developers, or whatever.

I must mention one of the many beacon-lighters. He is an IDF reservist who first enlisted as a 15-year-old and fought in the War of Independence. At the age of 96, he still serves in the reserves, speaking about the history and tradition of Tzahal. The clarity of his memory (he was one of the few beacon-lighters this evening to say his piece without referring to a written script) the strength of his voice and the straightness of his back were certainly an advert for the health benefits of military service!

The twelfth beacon was lit anonymously, off-camera, to represent the abductees.

In a normal year, this would have been followed by celebratory songs from popular soloists, and dancing, with the audience enthusiastically singing along and waving flags.. This section of this year’s ceremony was handled particularly well. The selection and arrangements of the songs was carefully designed to be more reflective and more minor key than usual. At the same time, a sense of transition from grief to thankfulness for the state we have was achieved by having hundreds of children from the displaced communities in the north and the south singing with the soloists, and offering musical accompaniment.

The formation marching by the army flag squads was much as usual, although, again, absent the wild enthusiasm and delight of a large crowd at the precision of their marching and their representation on the stage of such symbols as the flag, Magen David and menorah, there was an added dignity to the display that was more in keeping with this year’s events.

A decision had been taken to forgo the traditional firework display closing the ceremony, both because of the excessive celebration it would suggest and because of a fear of disturbing anyone suffering PTSD. (On a similar note, a meme doing the rounds offers the following exchange, to appreciate which you need to know that a siren sounds to mark a one-minute silence as Yom Hazikaron begins, and a two-minute silence at 11 AM the next day. Anyway, the exchange goes: “Where did the siren catch you?” “In the throat!” This is no less funny for being very true.)

In all, I felt that the entire ceremony struck the right balance for this very different year. We pray that, next Yom Ha’atzma’ut, we will be able to celebrate more traditionally, but, for this year, it seems to me that the day was marked very appropriately.

Let me start with a couple of clarifications

1. Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Day) in Israel this year falls on the 213^th day of October 7. I don’t wish to suggest any kind of equivalence between the Shoah and the period from October 7 to now. However, I must confess that, for myself at least, the visceral reality of October 7 is giving the Shoah, and Yom Hashoah, more immediacy this year.
2. A part of this shiur is taken from a shiur given at Yeshiva University 20 years ago by Rabbi Hershel Shachter. The other half has presented itself to me, as seems so often to be the case, by both the liturgy and the Torah readings of the last couple of weeks. We often remark on how, every year, each weekly Torah has a topical resonance. I find that the liturgy, also, seems to offer a response to whatever is occupying me at the time.  
3. In this shiur, I am not seeking to answer the question: ‘Where was God?’, but rather to explore the following three questions
   • What does the question ‘Where was God?’ mean?
   •  Have we the ability to answer the question: ‘Where was God?’?
   • Have we the right to ask the question: ‘Where was God’?’
4. In the course of asking these questions, we might come across some possible answers to the question: ‘Where was God?’, but that is not my main purpose today.

Bernice and I often discuss the fact that we have been blessed to be born at the time and in the place that we were, to have lived through the period in history we have lived through, and to have moved to Israel when we did. I was born almost five years after the liberation of the camps, and almost two years after the foundation of the state and I was raised in a liberal, creative, confident, and therefore largely accepting, England. I spent a very formative gap year in Israel on a course that began in reunited Jerusalem a year after the Six-Day War, then we came on aliya to an Israel on its way to being an economic and artistic powerhouse. We witnessed the release of Soviet Jewry and the fall of the Communist empire.

And then came the 21^st Century, leading, it now seems inexorably, to October 7, and the last eight months.

On 7^th day Pesach, a fellow congregant and I turned to each other after reciting Psalm 121 antiphonally, and agreed that it is getting harder and harder to recite this perek, and many other prakim, of tehilim.

Psalm 121 A Song of Ascents. I will lift my eyes up to the hills; from where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord, Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot stumble; He that guards you does not slumber. See: the Guardian of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. The Lord is your Guardian; the Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun will not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will guard you from all harm; He will guard your life. The Lord will guard your going and coming, now and for evermore.

תהלים קכ”א שִׁיר לַמַּעֲלוֹת: אֶשָּׂא עֵינַי אֶל הֶהָרִים, מֵאַיִן יָבֹא עֶזְרִי׃ עֶזְרִי מֵעִם ה׳ עֹשֵׂה שָׁמַיִם וָאָרֶץ׃ אַל יִתֵּן לַמּוֹט רַגְלֶךָ, אַל יָנוּם שֹׁמְרֶךָ׃ הִנֵּה לֹא יָנוּם וְלֹא יִישָׁן שׁוֹמֵר יִשְׂרָאֵל׃ ה׳ שֹׁמְרֶךָ, ה׳ צִלְּךָ עַל יַד יְמִינֶךָ׃ יוֹמָם הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ לֹא יַכֶּכָּה, וְיָרֵחַ בַּלָּיְלָה׃ ה׳ יִשְׁמָרְךָ מִכָּל רָע׃ יִשְׁמֹר אֶת נַפְשֶׁךָ׃ ה׳ יִשְׁמָר צֵאתְךָ וּבוֹאֶךָ, מֵעַתָּה וְעַד עוֹלָם׃

In the perek, we declare our faith that Hashem guards and will continue to protect us from all harm.

After the Shoah, after October 7, how are we to understand this? The perek begs the question: ‘Where was Hashem?’ If ה׳ יִשְׁמָר צֵאתְךָ וּבוֹאֶךָ, מֵעַתָּה וְעַד עוֹלָם (Hashem will guard your going and coming now and for evermore), then where was he in the Shoah and on October 7?

This question can, I suggest, be understood two ways. It may be a rhetorical question, with the obvious and unavoidable answer: “God was nowhere in the Shoah.” In the Shoah, there died six million Jews and God. This has clearly been the reaction of many Jews, survivors and others, and it is not easy to criticise them for their rejection of the existence of God. What kind of deity, whose first mentioned attribute is mercy, and who is also omniscient and omnipotent, can allow the slaughter of one and a half million children of his Chosen people?

The second way to understand the question: ‘Where was God in the Shoah?’ is as a genuine enquiry, a desire to understand how it is that a deity, whose first mentioned attribute is mercy, and who is also omniscient and omnipotent, can allow the slaughter of six million people, of one and a half million children, of his Chosen People. Not to say: ‘It cannot be!’, but to ask: ‘How can it be?’

To attempt to understand how this can be, let us start with the question of the nature and actions of God. I want to consider several aspects of God.

• Not only is God the prime mover, the creator of Yesh from Ayin – of substance from nothingness –  but He also continues to rule the universe.
• God is constantly aware of everything that happens in His universe. He did not create and move on. He created and stayed.
• God rewards the good and punishes the evil. He is constantly engaged with His universe.

All three of these points are fundamental to a Jewish understanding of God.

• We find them listed by Rambam among his fundamental principles. I want to highlight the second and third of the aspects I mentioned

Rambam’s Commentary on the Mishnah: Tractate Sanhedrin Ch 10 The 10th fundamental principle is that the Exalted One knows the actions of all men and does not neglect them, (Proof text: Genesis 6:5:) Hashem saw how great was human wickedness on earth.) The 11th fundamental principle is that the Exalted One rewards the one who observes the commandments of the Torah, and punishes the one who transgresses its admonitions. The greatest reward is the world to come and the greatest punishment is extinction (karet). (Proof text: Exodus 32:33:) “The one who sins against Me, I will erase from My book”

רמב”ם משנה סנהדרין י’ היסוד העשירי כי הוא הש”י יודע מעשיהם של בני אדם ואינו מעלים עינו מהם. (בראשית ו׳:ה׳) וירא ה’ כי רבה רעת האדם בארץ וגו’   היסוד אחד עשר כי הוא הש”י נותן שכר למי שעושה מצות התורה ויעניש למי שעובר על אזהרותיה וכי השכר הגדול העולם הבא והעונש החזק הכרת. (שמות ל״ב:ל״ג) מי אשר חטא לי אמחנו מספרי.

• We find these two principles everywhere in our daily liturgy. I’ve picked out two prime examples

Siddur Ashkenaz, Ashrei The Lord supports all who fall, and raises all who are bowed down. All raise their eyes to you in hope, and you give them their food in due season. You open your hand and satisfy what is wished for every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and kind in all he does. The Lord is close to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth. He will fulfil the will of those who revere Him; He will hear their cry and save them. The Lord guards all who love Him, but all the wicked He will destroy.		סידור אשכנז, אשרי סוֹמֵךְ יְהֹוָה לְכָל־הַנֹּפְ֒לִים וְזוֹקֵף לְכָל־הַכְּ֒פוּפִים: עֵינֵי־כֹל אֵלֶֽיךָ יְשַׂבֵּֽרוּ וְאַתָּה נוֹתֵן־לָהֶם אֶת־אָכְלָם בְּעִתּוֹ: פּוֹתֵֽחַ אֶת־יָדֶֽךָ וּמַשְׂבִּֽיעַ לְכָל־חַי רָצוֹן: צַדִּיק יְהֹוָה בְּכָל־דְּרָכָיו וְחָסִיד בְּכָל־מַעֲשָׂיו: קָרוֹב יְהֹוָה לְכָל־קֹרְ֒אָיו לְכֹל אֲשֶׁר יִקְרָאֻֽהוּ בֶאֱמֶת: רְצוֹן־יְרֵאָיו יַעֲשֶׂה וְאֶת־שַׁוְעָתָם יִשְׁמַע וְיוֹשִׁיעֵם: שׁוֹמֵר יְהֹוָה אֶת־כָּל־אֹהֲבָיו וְאֵת כָּל־הָרְ֒שָׁעִים יַשְׁמִיד:
Siddur Ashkenaz, Amidah, Modim Anachnu Lach We give thanks to You, for You are the Lord our God and God of our ancestors for ever and all time. You are the Rock of our lives, Shield of our salvation from generation to generation. We will thank You and declare Your praise for our lives, which are entrusted into Your hand, for our souls, which are placed in Your charge, for Your miracles, which are with us every day; and for Your wonders and favours at all times, evening, morning and midday. You are good – for Your compassion never fails. You are compassionate – for Your loving-kindnesses never cease. We have always placed our hope in You.		סידור אשכנז, מודים אנחנו לך (ב) מוֹדִים אֲנַֽחְנוּ לָךְ שָׁאַתָּה הוּא יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ וֵאלֹהֵי אֲבוֹתֵֽינוּ לְעוֹלָם וָעֶד צוּר חַיֵּֽינוּ מָגֵן יִשְׁעֵֽנוּ אַתָּה הוּא לְדוֹר וָדוֹר נֽוֹדֶה לְּךָ וּנְסַפֵּר תְּהִלָּתֶֽךָ עַל־חַיֵּֽינוּ הַמְּ֒סוּרִים בְּיָדֶֽךָ וְעַל נִשְׁמוֹתֵֽינוּ הַפְּ֒קוּדוֹת לָךְ וְעַל נִסֶּֽיךָ שֶׁבְּכָל יוֹם עִמָּֽנוּ וְעַל נִפְלְ֒אוֹתֶֽיךָ וְטוֹבוֹתֶֽיךָ שֶׁבְּ֒כָל עֵת עֶֽרֶב וָבֹֽקֶר וְצָהֳרָֽיִם הַטּוֹב כִּי לֹא כָלוּ רַחֲמֶֽיךָ וְהַמְ֒רַחֵם כִּי לֹא תַֽמּוּ חֲסָדֶֽיךָ מֵעוֹלָם קִוִּֽינוּ לָךְ:

“Your compassion never fails…. Your loving-kindness never ceases.” How are we to understand this in the light of what has befallen us?

To attempt to answer that question, let us look at the relationship between Hashem and the Jewish People. Earlier this week, we read in the Mussaf Amida for Shlosh Regalim:

Siddur Ashkenaz, Shalosh Regalim, Mussaf, Kedushat Hayom You chose us from among all peoples. You loved us and favoured us. You raised us above all tongues. You made us holy through your commandments. You brought us near, our King, to Your service, and called us by Your great and holy name. … But because of our sins we were exiled from our land and driven far from our country.  We cannot go up to appear and bow before You, and to perform our duties in Your chosen House, the great and holy Temple that was called by Your name, because of the hand that was stretched out before Your sanctuary. …May it be Your will, Lord our God and God of our ancestors, merciful King, that You in Your abounding compassion may once more have mercy on us and on your sanctuary, rebuilding it swiftly and adding to its glory

סידור אשכנז, תפילות לשלוש רגלים, מוסף, קדושת היום אַתָּה בְּחַרְתָּנוּ מִכָּל הָעַמִּים אָהַבְתָּ אוֹתָנוּ וְרָצִיתָ בָּנוּ וְרוֹמַמְתָּנוּ מִכָּל הַלְּשׁוֹנוֹת וְקִדַּשְׁתָּנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתֶיךָ וְקֵרַבְתָּנוּ מַלְכֵּנוּ לַעֲבוֹדָתֶךָ וְשִׁמְךָ הַגָּדוֹל וְהַקָּדוֹשׁ עָלֵינוּ קָרָאתָ: …וּמִפְּנֵי חֲטָאֵינוּ גָּלִינוּ מֵאַרְצֵנוּ. וְנִתְרַחַקְנוּ מֵעַל אַדְמָתֵנוּ. וְאֵין אֲנַחְנוּ יְכוֹלִים לַעֲלוֹת וְלֵרָאוֹת וּלְהִשְׁתַּחֲוֹת לְפָנֶיךָ. וְלַעֲשׂוֹת חוֹבוֹתֵינוּ בְּבֵית בְּחִירָתֶךָ. בַּבַּיִת הַגָּדוֹל וְהַקָּדוֹשׁ שֶׁנִּקְרָא שִׁמְךָ עָלָיו. מִפְּנֵי הַיָּד שֶׁנִּשְׁתַּלְּחָה בְּמִקְדָּשֶׁךָ: … יְהִי רָצוֹן מִלְּפָנֶיךָ ה’ אֱלֹהֵינוּ וֵאלֹהֵי אֲבוֹתֵינוּ. מֶלֶךְ רַחֲמָן. שֶׁתָּשׁוּב וּתְרַחֵם עָלֵינוּ וְעַל מִקְדָּשְׁךָ בְּרַחֲמֶיךָ הָרַבִּים. וְתִבְנֵהוּ מְהֵרָה וּתְגַדֵּל כְּבוֹדוֹ:

This passage delineates three stages in the history of the People’s relationship with God: the Temple period, exile and redemption from exile.

We know that the Temple is, among other things, a place for the Shchina to dwell among us. The destruction of the Temple symbolises, among other things, the withdrawing of God from our presence. For Isaiah, the failures and shortcomings of the People will turn the Temple from the place where God is most accessible to an arena of conflict within the People. This conflict will lead to the withdrawing of the Shchina, the destruction of the Temple, exile from the Land, and the hiding of God’s face.

Isaiah writes about the destruction of the Temple and the exile:

Isaiah 8: 17 (13) None but the Lord of Hosts shall you account holy; give reverence to [God] alone, hold [God] alone in awe. (14) [God] shall become a sanctuary, a stone people strike against: a rock people stumble over for the two Houses of Israel, and a trap and a snare for those, who dwell in Jerusalem. (15) The masses shall trip over these and shall fall and be injured, shall be snared and be caught. (16) Bind up the message, seal the instruction with My disciples.” (17) So I will wait for the Lord, whose face is hidden from the House of Jacob, and I will trust in him.

ישעיהו ח׳:י״ג-י״ז (יג) אֶת־יְהֹוָ֥ה צְבָא֖וֹת אֹת֣וֹ תַקְדִּ֑ישׁוּ וְה֥וּא מוֹרַאֲכֶ֖ם וְה֥וּא מַעֲרִֽצְכֶֽם׃ (יד) וְהָיָ֖ה לְמִקְדָּ֑שׁ וּלְאֶ֣בֶן נֶ֠גֶף וּלְצ֨וּר מִכְשׁ֜וֹל לִשְׁנֵ֨י בָתֵּ֤י יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ לְפַ֣ח וּלְמוֹקֵ֔שׁ לְיוֹשֵׁ֖ב יְרוּשָׁלָֽ͏ִם׃ (טו) וְכָ֥שְׁלוּ בָ֖ם רַבִּ֑ים וְנָפְל֣וּ וְנִשְׁבָּ֔רוּ וְנוֹקְשׁ֖וּ וְנִלְכָּֽדוּ׃ {פ} (טז) צ֖וֹר תְּעוּדָ֑ה חֲת֥וֹם תּוֹרָ֖ה בְּלִמֻּדָֽי׃ (יז) וְחִכִּ֙יתִי֙ לַיהֹוָ֔ה הַמַּסְתִּ֥יר פָּנָ֖יו מִבֵּ֣ית יַעֲקֹ֑ב וְקִוֵּ֖יתִי־לֽוֹ׃

Perhaps הסתר פנים, (Hester Panim), the hiding of God’s face,  is the answer to the question: ‘Where was God?’ However, as happens with many profound questions, this answer may simply suggest other, hopefully more specific, questions: ‘What is the nature of הסתר פנים? If הסתר פנים appears to me to represent Hashem’s desertion of his people, clearly I am not understanding הסתר פנים correctly. How does it actually demonstrate Hashem’s eternal loving-kindness?’

Let’s turn now to the second of my questions posed at the beginning: ‘Is it given to us to understand God’s action in allowing the Shoah (and October 7) to happen?

I believe that the Torah reading for Shabbat Hol Hamoed of Pesach can help us towards an answer to that question.

Exodus 33:13-30 (13) Now, if I have truly gained Your favor, pray let me know Your ways, that I may know You and continue in Your favor. Consider, too, that this nation is Your people.” (14) And [God] said, “I will go in the lead and will lighten your burden.” (15) And he replied, “Unless You go in the lead, do not make us leave this place. (16) For how shall it be known that Your people have gained Your favor unless You go with us, so that we may be distinguished, Your people and I, from every people on the face of the earth?” (17) And Hashem said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have asked; for you have truly gained My favor and I have singled you out by name.” (18) He said, “Oh, let me behold Your Presence!” (19) And [God] answered, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim before you the name of Hashem, and I will grant the grace that I will grant and show the compassion that I will show.  (20) “But you cannot see My face, for a human being may not see Me and live.” (21) And Hashem said, “See, there is a place near Me. Station yourself on the rock (22) and, as My Presence passes by, I will put you in a cleft of the rock and shield you with My hand until I have passed by. (23) Then I will take My hand away and you will see My back; but My face will not be seen.”

שמות ל״ג:י״ג-ל׳ (יג) וְעַתָּ֡ה אִם־נָא֩ מָצָ֨אתִי חֵ֜ן בְּעֵינֶ֗יךָ הוֹדִעֵ֤נִי נָא֙ אֶת־דְּרָכֶ֔ךָ וְאֵדָ֣עֲךָ֔ לְמַ֥עַן אֶמְצָא־חֵ֖ן בְּעֵינֶ֑יךָ וּרְאֵ֕ה כִּ֥י עַמְּךָ֖ הַגּ֥וֹי הַזֶּֽה׃ (יד) וַיֹּאמַ֑ר פָּנַ֥י יֵלֵ֖כוּ וַהֲנִחֹ֥תִי לָֽךְ׃ (טו) וַיֹּ֖אמֶר אֵלָ֑יו אִם־אֵ֤ין פָּנֶ֙יךָ֙ הֹלְכִ֔ים אַֽל־תַּעֲלֵ֖נוּ מִזֶּֽה׃ (טז) וּבַמֶּ֣ה ׀ יִוָּדַ֣ע אֵפ֗וֹא כִּֽי־מָצָ֨אתִי חֵ֤ן בְּעֵינֶ֙יךָ֙ אֲנִ֣י וְעַמֶּ֔ךָ הֲל֖וֹא בְּלֶכְתְּךָ֣ עִמָּ֑נוּ וְנִפְלִ֙ינוּ֙ אֲנִ֣י וְעַמְּךָ֔ מִכׇּ֨ל־הָעָ֔ם אֲשֶׁ֖ר עַל־פְּנֵ֥י הָאֲדָמָֽה׃ {פ} (יז) וַיֹּ֤אמֶר יְהֹוָה֙ אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֔ה גַּ֣ם אֶת־הַדָּבָ֥ר הַזֶּ֛ה אֲשֶׁ֥ר דִּבַּ֖רְתָּ אֶֽעֱשֶׂ֑ה כִּֽי־מָצָ֤אתָ חֵן֙ בְּעֵינַ֔י וָאֵדָעֲךָ֖ בְּשֵֽׁם׃ (יח) וַיֹּאמַ֑ר הַרְאֵ֥נִי נָ֖א אֶת־כְּבֹדֶֽךָ׃ (יט) וַיֹּ֗אמֶר אֲנִ֨י אַעֲבִ֤יר כׇּל־טוּבִי֙ עַל־פָּנֶ֔יךָ וְקָרָ֧אתִֽי בְשֵׁ֛ם יְהֹוָ֖ה לְפָנֶ֑יךָ וְחַנֹּתִי֙ אֶת־אֲשֶׁ֣ר אָחֹ֔ן וְרִחַמְתִּ֖י אֶת־אֲשֶׁ֥ר אֲרַחֵֽם׃ (כ) וַיֹּ֕אמֶר לֹ֥א תוּכַ֖ל לִרְאֹ֣ת אֶת־פָּנָ֑י כִּ֛י לֹֽא־יִרְאַ֥נִי הָאָדָ֖ם וָחָֽי׃ (כא) וַיֹּ֣אמֶר יְהֹוָ֔ה הִנֵּ֥ה מָק֖וֹם אִתִּ֑י וְנִצַּבְתָּ֖ עַל־הַצּֽוּר׃ (כב) וְהָיָה֙ בַּעֲבֹ֣ר כְּבֹדִ֔י וְשַׂמְתִּ֖יךָ בְּנִקְרַ֣ת הַצּ֑וּר וְשַׂכֹּתִ֥י כַפִּ֛י עָלֶ֖יךָ עַד־עׇבְרִֽי׃ (כג) וַהֲסִרֹתִי֙ אֶת־כַּפִּ֔י וְרָאִ֖יתָ אֶת־אֲחֹרָ֑י וּפָנַ֖י לֹ֥א יֵרָאֽוּ׃

Hashem seems to be saying to Moshe that he (Moshe) can gain a comprehension of Hashem’s goodness, but he is incapable of understanding all of Hashem’s ways. ‘You cannot see My face, for a human being cannot see Me and live’

Let me suggest one way for us to understand the metaphor of Hashem’s back and His face.

We can understand Hashem’s role in history. Looking back (in the direction of God’s back), we can see Hashem’s influence, and comprehend His goodness. However, we are unable to look into the future (looking forward, in the direction of God’s face), and, without that ability, we can never see the whole picture. This is hinted at in the story of the days of the creation.

• On each day, we are told that Hashem saw what he had created on that day, and saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:25 (25) God made wild beasts of every kind and cattle of every kind, and all kinds of creeping things of the earth. And God saw that this was good.

בראשית א׳: כ״ה (כה) וַיַּ֣עַשׂ אֱלֹהִים֩ אֶת־חַיַּ֨ת הָאָ֜רֶץ לְמִינָ֗הּ וְאֶת־הַבְּהֵמָה֙ לְמִינָ֔הּ וְאֵ֛ת כׇּל־רֶ֥מֶשׂ הָֽאֲדָמָ֖ה לְמִינֵ֑הוּ וַיַּ֥רְא אֱלֹהִ֖ים כִּי־טֽוֹב׃

• On the sixth day, however, we are told that Hashem saw everything that had been made, on all six days, and found it very good.

Genesis 1: 31 (31) And God saw all that had been made, and found it very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

בראשית א: ל”א (כה) וַיַּ֣עַשׂ אֱלֹהִים֩ אֶת־חַיַּ֨ת הָאָ֜רֶץ לְמִינָ֗הּ וְאֶת־הַבְּהֵמָה֙ לְמִינָ֔הּ וְאֵ֛ת כׇּל־רֶ֥מֶשׂ הָֽאֲדָמָ֖ה לְמִינֵ֑הוּ וַיַּ֥רְא אֱלֹהִ֖ים כִּי־טֽוֹב׃ (לא) וַיַּ֤רְא אֱלֹהִים֙ אֶת־כׇּל־אֲשֶׁ֣ר עָשָׂ֔ה וְהִנֵּה־ט֖וֹב מְאֹ֑ד וַֽיְהִי־עֶ֥רֶב וַֽיְהִי־בֹ֖קֶר י֥וֹם הַשִּׁשִּֽׁי׃ {פ}

God only saw just how good it was when he saw the whole picture.

Let me offer an analogy. A mother takes her one-year-old child to Tipat Halav for a vaccination against measles, mumps and rubella. The waiting-room is full of other mothers with their one-year-old children waiting for the vaccination. As the nurse slips the needle into the child’s arm, the child, terrified, starts crying and screaming. All of the other children, hearing the terror in her cries, start screaming and crying. All of the mothers attempt to calm their children, and fail. It is not given to a one-year-old to understand its mother’s purpose in allowing it to suffer this vaccination. There is no way for the mothers to explain to the children the benefit of what is happening.

If we need to be omniscient in order to understand God’s role in the Shoah, then that brings us to my last question. Have we the right to ask the question: ‘Where was God?’ Isn’t it a presumptuous question?

Perhaps our only role is to accept, unquestioningly, the infinite mercy of God. Perhaps this is the level of religious devotion that we aspire to when we sing that (on the surface) most ridiculous, but perhaps most sublime of Seder night songs – Dayenu.

Pesach Haggadah, Magid, Dayenu Had He given us their wealth without splitting the sea for us, that would have been enough for us.

הגדה של פסח, מגיד, דיינו אִלּוּ נָתַן לָנוּ אֶת־מָמוֹנָם וְלֹא קָרַע לָנוּ אֶת־הַיָּם, דַּיֵּנוּ.

Seriously??!!! If God had defeated the Egyptian deities, taken us out of Egypt, led us to Yam Suf, and then the Egyptian army had caught up with us trapped in front of the sea and slaughtered every last one of us, that would have been enough for us??!! In what universe does that make sense?

Perhaps the answer to that question is: If that is what God had chosen to allow to happen, then He would have had His reasons, which it is far beyond our ability to comprehend. All we can do is express the depth of our faith by stating that if that is what had happened then it would be what God had decided was in harmony with his Divine plan, and it would have been sufficient for us. If my mother, whose love for me is limitless, allows this nurse to stick this needle in me, then it must be for my own good. If six million Jews were slaughtered, and millions others lost their family members, their livelihoods, their homes, their possessions, then that must, in some way that we will never be able to fathom, serve God’s benign purpose.

In that case, I repeat: Have we the right to ask the question: ‘Where was God?’? I would suggest that the Gemara in Chullin, in one of those strange stories that the Talmud presents, offers an answer to that question.

Chullin 60b § Rabbi Shimon ben Pazi raises a contradiction between two verses. It is written: “And God made the two great lights” (Genesis 1:16), and it is also written in the same verse: “The greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night,” indicating that only one was great. Rabbi Shimon ben Pazi explains: When God first created the sun and the moon, they were equally bright. Then, the moon said before the Holy One, Blessed be He: Master of the Universe, is it possible for two kings to serve with one crown? One of us must be subservient to the other. God therefore said to her, i.e., the moon: If so, go and diminish yourself. She said before Him: Master of the Universe, since I said a correct observation before You, must I diminish myself? God said to her: As compensation, go and rule both during the day along with the sun and during the night. She said to Him: What is the greatness of shining alongside the sun? What use is a candle in the middle of the day? God said to her: Go; let the Jewish people count the days and years with you, and this will be your greatness. She said to Him: But the Jewish people will count with the sun as well, as it is impossible that they will not count seasons with it, as it is written: “And let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years” (Genesis 1:14). God said to her: Go; let righteous men be named after you. Just as you are called the lesser [hakatan] light, there will be Ya’akov HaKatan, i.e., Jacob our forefather (see Amos 7:2), Shmuel HaKatan the tanna, and David HaKatan, i.e., King David (see I Samuel 17:14). God saw that the moon was not comforted. The Holy One, Blessed be He, said: Bring atonement for me, since I diminished the moon.

חולין ס׳ ב רבי שמעון בן פזי רמי כתיב (בראשית א, טז) ויעש אלהים את שני המאורות הגדולים וכתיב את המאור הגדול ואת המאור הקטן אמרה ירח לפני הקב”ה רבש”ע אפשר לשני מלכים שישתמשו בכתר אחד אמר לה לכי ומעטי את עצמך אמרה לפניו רבש”ע הואיל ואמרתי לפניך דבר הגון אמעיט את עצמי אמר לה לכי ומשול ביום ובלילה אמרה ליה מאי רבותיה דשרגא בטיהרא מאי אהני אמר לה זיל לימנו בך ישראל ימים ושנים אמרה ליה יומא נמי אי אפשר דלא מנו ביה תקופותא דכתיב (בראשית א, יד) והיו לאותות ולמועדים ולימים ושנים זיל ליקרו צדיקי בשמיך (עמוס ז, ב) יעקב הקטן שמואל הקטן (שמואל א יז, יד) דוד הקטן חזייה דלא קא מיתבא דעתה אמר הקב”ה הביאו כפרה עלי שמיעטתי את הירח

Two things immediately strike me as bizarre about this account. The first is the apparent obstreperousness of the moon. When I taught, I occasionally had pupils like this, and I know that I couldn’t stand this kind of barrack-room lawyer. The moon (which I have always thought of more as an agent of God’s will than as a creation with free will) points out the ‘injustice’ of God’s ruling. She then points out the ‘illogic’ of each of God’s two suggested ‘compensations’ for the ‘injustice’.

Perhaps even more bizarre is that, when God sees that the moon is not comforted, He says: ‘Bring atonement for me, since I diminished the moon’. How are we to understand the meaning and the working of atonement for God? Is God ‘admitting’ that He ‘made a mistake’, that He ‘sinned’? Who is going to ‘bring’ the atonement? How? To whom will it be given? The Gemara in Chullin continues:

And this is what Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish says: What is different about the goat offering of the New Moon, that it is stated with regard to it: “For the Lord” (Numbers 28:15)? The Holy One, Blessed be He, said: This goat shall be an atonement for Me for having diminished the size of the moon.

והיינו דאמר ר”ש בן לקיש מה נשתנה שעיר של ראש חדש שנאמר בו (במדבר כח, טו) לה’ אמר הקב”ה שעיר זה יהא כפרה על שמיעטתי את הירח

The only offering for which the specific wording ‘Lashem’ (to/for the Lord) is used in connection with sacrifices is the goat brought as a sin offering on Rosh Chodesh.

Numbers 28:14-15 (14) Their libations shall be: half a hin of wine for a bull, a third of a hin for a ram, and a quarter of a hin for a lamb. That shall be the monthly burnt offering for each new moon of the year. (15) And there shall be one goat as a sin offering to/for Hashem, to be offered in addition to the regular burnt offering and its libation.

במדבר כ״ח:י״ד-ט״ו (יד) וְנִסְכֵּיהֶ֗ם חֲצִ֣י הַהִין֩ יִהְיֶ֨ה לַפָּ֜ר וּשְׁלִישִׁ֧ת הַהִ֣ין לָאַ֗יִל וּרְבִיעִ֥ת הַהִ֛ין לַכֶּ֖בֶשׂ יָ֑יִן זֹ֣את עֹלַ֥ת חֹ֙דֶשׁ֙ בְּחׇדְשׁ֔וֹ לְחׇדְשֵׁ֖י הַשָּׁנָֽה׃ (טו) וּשְׂעִ֨יר עִזִּ֥ים אֶחָ֛ד לְחַטָּ֖את לַיהֹוָ֑ה עַל־עֹלַ֧ת הַתָּמִ֛יד יֵעָשֶׂ֖ה וְנִסְכּֽוֹ׃ {ס}

I think that the Gemara is suggesting that Hashem understands the moon’s reaction to be an earnest and pious attempt to understand the justice of Hashem’s plan to diminish her power. The conclusion that the moon comes to is that God’s plan is unjust. This is, of course, not because the plan is unjust, but rather because the justice of God’s plan is beyond the moon’s comprehension. Nevertheless, God hears the moon’s argument and acknowledges the argument’s legitimacy by instructing the children of Israel to offer, on God’s behalf, a sin offering at every rebirth of the moon.

Let me emphasise that what I mean by ‘legitimacy’ here is not ‘correctness’ but rather ‘appropriateness’. It is fitting for the moon to use what God-given intelligence she has to attempt to understand God’s ways. It is an appropriate use of that God-given intelligence for the moon to decide that God’s plan is unjust. God will even assume the role of one who has ‘wronged’ the moon in order to ‘atone’ for suggesting His plan.

By extension, we have the right to use our God-given intelligence to examine and judge God’s actions. We have the right to ask: ‘Where was God during the Shoah?’, whatever answer our human intelligence leads us to.

For many years, a story circulated about an event in Auschwitz that was regarded as apocryphal, until Eli Wiesel revealed that he had been present as a witness of the incident. One day, three rabbis got together to put God on trial for the Shoah. At the end of the trial, they found God guilty. I believe that as God watched them from Heaven, he ‘rejoiced’ at the intelligent exercise of free will his subjects were demonstrating.

But the story does not end there. As the trial concluded, one of the rabbis looked up to the sky and announced that it was time for aravit, and so they davened aravit.

In this, they were following the example of Job, in the middle of his suffering.

Job 13:15 Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him. Yet I will argue my case before Him.

איוב י״ג:ט״ו הֵ֣ן יִ֭קְטְלֵנִי ל֣וֹ אֲיַחֵ֑ל אַךְ־דְּ֝רָכַ֗י אֶל־פָּנָ֥יו אוֹכִֽיחַ׃

We have the right – we have the duty – to ask the question: ‘Where was God in the Shoah?’. In asking the question, we demonstrate and celebrate the free will and the intelligence that God, in His infinite wisdom and kindness, has given us.

However, we have the ability to answer the question only within the limitations of our human understanding. At the same time as we ask the question, we must guard against our asking of the question undermining our fundamental certainty that God is all-merciful. We must trust in Him and argue our case before Him. In both of these actions equally, in trusting Him and in questioning His actions, we glorify His name.

Blogger’s Note: I have remarked previously on the diversity of my readership. Mine is not one of those blogs by an enthusiast of late 14-Century coastal Chinese ivory carvings for enthusiasts of late 14^th-Century coastal Chinese ivory carvings. I do try to be more than one or two things to more than one or two folks, and that inevitably means that not every post I write will interest everyone who reads it.

If words ain’t your thing, you might want to skip this week’s post. If you get a third of the way through and aren’t enjoying it, there’s not much point in reading on. I plough a narrow furrow this week, and I know it’s not a furrow that everyone finds groovy! As Bernice said when giving it her seal of approval: “OK! It’s not for me, but it’s a nice blog.”

You have been warned. No money back beyond this point.

A pudding, my OED (Oxford English Dictionary) informs me, is a sweet or savoury steamed dish made with flour. What, I ask myself, could be less suitable for Pesach, since steaming flour would inevitably create chametz, the leaven that is the very antithesis of Pesach? However, the reality of life at the moment makes me want to embrace some kind of escapism, and so I offer you, this week, a piece that is full of hot air and, featuring, as it does, a cabbage and a mulberry, promises to be both savoury and sweet.

When I’m looking to escape, I usually bury myself in a puzzle. Any puzzle will do, but, given the choice, it would be a word puzzle; if available, a crossword puzzle; preferably, a Times crossword puzzle; ideally, the Times Cryptic. So, I seek refuge this week in two of the clues from last week’s Times Cryptic puzzle.

Let’s start with the cabbage. In last Thursday’s Cryptic, the following clue appeared:
Steal from Savoy (7)

Most solvers were able, from the ‘lights’, (the letters shared with words that crossed this word on the crossword grid) that the answer was CABBAGE, of which Savoy is a variety that is similar to green cabbage but a bit milder and sweeter, with leaves that are looser and more ruffly. Its name derives from its assumed origin in the Savoy region of France, the Western Alpine area bordering Italy and Switzerland.

So far, so good.

“But what”, you – and many, many Times crossword solvers – ask, “has ‘steal’ to do with cabbage?”

Well, it transpires that ‘cabbage’ is slang for ‘steal’.

“But why?” you continue – and even if you don’t, because you are asleep by this stage, rest assured that I certainly did.

And the answer is…not as straightforward as you might have hoped. All I can offer you, after considerable research, is a couple of tentative suggestions.

There are many cases where a slang word appears to bear no relation, in sound or meaning, to the target word. ‘Cabbage’ seems to have no association with ‘steal’. In such cases, the most common explanation is that it is a term in Cockney rhyming slang, a slang devised deliberately to be incomprehensible to outsiders. Cockney rhyming slang uses the device of finding a common two-word (or sometimes three-word) phrase that happens to rhyme with the target, then removing the second (rhyming) word of the phrase and using only the first word in slang. Common examples are:
butcher’s (hook) = look
apples (and pears) = stairs
daisy (root) = boot

It has been suggested that ‘cabbage’ derives from cockney rhyming ‘cabbage leaf’ to mean ‘thief’. However, this is unlikely, since the standard cockney slang for ‘thief’ is ‘tea leaf’ (and not, confusingly, ‘tea’). In addition, ‘thief’ is not a synonym of ‘steal’.

‘Cabbage’ is used as a slang term for ‘money’ (presumably because a cabbage leaf is green (the traditional and original colour of the ₤1 note) or, when it is stale and worth less, brown (the traditional and original colour of the 10-shilling note). However, the leap from ‘money’ to ‘steal’ seems to me too far.

A second, more promising, suggestion comes from the tailoring trade. When a customer pays a tailor to make a suit, part of the cost is the cost of the length of material cut from a bolt (or roll) of cloth. The cutter unrolls a suitable (pun intended) length of cloth, chalks out the pattern of the suit on the length of cloth and cuts the length from the bolt. He then cuts out the chalked pattern. The art of the cutter lies in laying out the various elements of the pattern (the various pieces of the suit – two sleeves, a jacket back, a jacket front, pocket flaps, etc.) in such a way as to minimise the length of cloth required, thus enabling the tailor either to minimise the cost of the suit, or to maximise his profit margin, as desired.

Nevertheless, however skilled the cutter is, there will inevitably be some scraps left over after the pattern has been cut out. For those of you who have stayed awake to this point, we have reached our destination. Those offcut scraps are referred to as ‘cabbage’. This probably reflects their resemblance to shreds of cabbage, or, possibly, their resemblance to straw wastage (which was called ‘garbage’, a word which then came to acquire its modern meaning). Over the years, the word ‘garbage’ mutated to ‘cabbage’. Some people claim that, because of its resemblance, when shredded, to straw garbage, the brassica was originally named ‘garbage’, which was corrupted, over the years, to ‘cabbage’.

At least since the 20^th Century, the convention in Britain was that any cabbage was the property of the tailor and not the customer who had paid for the cloth. Therefore, when I read suggestions that ‘tailor’s cabbage’ is the origin of the slang term ‘cabbage’ for ‘steal’, I was surprised, and, on Bernice’s behalf, deeply offended. Her late grandfather, at least one great-uncle, and, later, an uncle, were all cutters in London’s East End.

However, further research shows that this convention was not always the case. As far back as the end of the 17^th Century, tailors tried to claim the scraps from cutting out a client’s garment as their perk, but this was by no means the norm.  Some clients felt that the scraps should be theirs, not the tailors, and less scrupulous tailors were even accused of inflating the amount of fabric needed for a garment, or cutting it poorly, in order to maximise the cabbage.

Dyche’s Dictionary of 1748 describes cabbage as: “…a cant word to express anything that is pilfered privately, as pieces of cloth or silk retained by taylors, mantua-makers or others”.

In 1811 A Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue described cabbage as: “clothe, stuff or silk purloined by tailors from their employers”. (The use of ‘employer’ here, rather than ‘customer’, implies that this refers to tailors employed as a permanent part of a great household. In that case, it seems less likely that the cabbage would have been regarded as the tailor’s, rather than his master’s, property.)

It is a short step from ‘the thing stolen’ to ‘to steal’, and this explanation seems to me most likely.

On that inconclusive note, let us move one day back to last Wednesday’s Cryptic, and the following clue:
Lives, I see, in cooler Iranian city (7)

This is what we cruciverbalists (crossword enthusiasts) call an IKEA clue, containing, as it does, cryptic instructions which, if you can follow them, enable you to assemble the answer piece by piece. Let’s first solve it step by step.

Lives = IS; I see = AH!; Cooler = FAN; I see is in cooler, so we need to write IS and then AH inside FAN. This yields IS F-AH-AN; in other words, ISFAHAN, an Iranian city.

I came to the crossword only on Thursday morning, and was therefore very amused to see this clue, since the news that morning was full of reports of the defence system for Iran’s nuclear installation at Isfahan being destroyed by missiles. When I looked at the website that offers analysis, every day, of the Times crossword, explaining the solution of every clue, I saw that many of the commenters, who had, of course, solved on Wednesday, before the news broke, were complaining that they had never heard of this ‘obscure’ Iranian city. In defence of the setter, since the IKEA clue was very fair, it was certainly possible to construct the answer without having heard of the city, which many, many solvers did.

On the Thursday morning, I posted a comment on the site, which read as follows:

I suspect that fewer solvers will not have heard of the Iranian city at 19 Down this morning. Shades of the Telegraph crosswords before D-Day.

That reference to the Daily Telegraph is a story that bears retelling. In the run-up to the D-Day landings in 1944, a Daily Telegraph crossword compiler was arrested and interrogated by British Intelligence after a run of crosswords featuring codewords linked to the landings — UTAH, OMAHA, OVERLORD, MULBERRY and NEPTUNE all appeared. He was a headmaster at a school next to a camp where US and Canadian forces were preparing for the landings. He was eventually released, and the incident was dismissed as a bizarre coincidence, or possibly a sub-conscious selection of words overheard in the pub as a result of careless talk.

This post is due to be published on the morning after chag in Israel, and the last morning of chag outside Israel. I hope you all had a meaningful and restful chag, and feel ready to steel yourselves for what promises to be an even-more-than-usually-charged 9 days embracing Holocaust Day, Remembrance Day and Independence Day in Israel: of which, probably, more next week.

I am publishing this week’s post over 20 hours early (assuming I can finish writing it by then), because, of course, Pesach begins this evening. For the same reason, this is going to be a fairly short post. Bernice and I are actually well on schedule with all of the practical preparations for hag. However, Pesach, and Seder night specifically, are not only about practical preparations. If Judaism is a religion that inhabits the space shared by ritual and theology, then Pesach is the festival that, perhaps more than any other, belongs to that space.

Sukkot is, I would argue, the only other genuine contender for that title, and, even then, nobody starts preparing for Sukkot until after Yom Kippur, a few days previously. Many people start preparing for Pesach immediately after Purim – a month in advance (and some after Chanukah – over three months in advance in a non-leap lunar year).

So, in terms of physical preparations, we are in good shape. As I write these lines, Bernice is preparing this evening’s meal. Yesterday, I did my ritual biscuit and cake bake. This year went very smoothly, after an initial hiccough. I began by gathering my ingredients for the three-and-a-half-hour bakeathon – French chocolate cake, coconut pyramids, florentines, almond macaroons, cinnamon balls, all executed in accordance with a songsheet that has been refined over the years to best utilise baking time for preparation of the next item, while taking into account the limited number of baking trays at my disposal, the fact that we have only one cooling tray, varying oven temperature times, calls for egg yolks and whites, and so forth.

The initial hiccough was when I discovered that during our big pre-Pesach shop, we had somehow missed the sugar on our list. A word of advice. If you’re going to forget one item from your pre-Pesach baking shopping expedition, don’t make it sugar, which is, of course, common to all of the above goodies. So I had to dash out to buy some sugar last minute. However, as I say, from then on things went smoothly, and I was able to relinquish the kitchen to Bernice in good time.

This leaves me free, today, to devote myself to the spiritual preparation, which takes the form, for me, of deciding what we should speak about during the Seder. At the risk of almost repeating myself, and appearing to contradict myself, if Judaism is a religion that inhabits the space shared by liturgy and free expression, then Pesach is the festival that, perhaps more than any other, occupies that space. The essence of the Seder is not only to read the Haggadah, but also to have the text of the Haggadah serve as a springboard for exploring our faith.

This year, more than any year in my lifetime, and certainly in a way that we have not seen since the 1970s and the Movement for Soviet Jewry, it seems impossible simply to read the Pesach story this evening. The situation in which both Israel and world Jewry find themselves, the fact that well over a hundred thousand Israelis are not able to celebrate in their homes near the northern border or near Gaza, the hundreds and hundreds of families grieving for their loved ones who were murdered on October 7 or who have fallen in the war, and most powerfully the continued incarceration and enslavement of those abductees that are still alive, and the holding of the bodies of those that are not, cries out for us to explore, in the Pesach story, ways to understand where what we are living through fits into the Jewish story, and how we can live with it.

I don’t want to say more than that, because Bernice might read these words before Seder night, and I want to avoid any spoilers.

Instead, let me offer a couple of quick observations about life in Israel as viewed through the radio. (Yes, I know you can’t view anything through the radio. “…as discerned through the radio”, if you insist, but it doesn’t have the same ring.)

As the days have ticked on (199 days from Simchat Torah; 1 day to Pesach), with October 7 not getting smaller in the rearview mirror and Pesach looming ever larger through the windscreen, the conversation in Israel has turned increasingly to the two questions I pose in my title this week. How can we celebrate the Festival of Freedom when 133 hostages are either dead or alive and still underground in darkness in Gaza? How can we wish each other a Joyous Pesach when the reality is so depressing? I believe that there are answers to these questions, and I believe that the Seder table is the place to discuss them, but I also believe that the questions are not only legitimate but also are begging to be asked.

Oh dear! That last paragraph looks remarkably like a spoiler to me. Let me back-pedal. The clash between celebration and the suspension of celebration has been very noticeable this week on my usual radio station. The bulk of the content of the morning current affairs programs has been focused, in recent days, on these questions. The presenters have explored possible answers with the families of the abducted, whose empty chair at this year’s Seder, barring a miracle of Biblical proportions, will be real and not symbolic. They have also explored them with religious leaders and thinkers.

These morning programs are sprinkled (which may be how the network sees it) or rudely interrupted (which is how I see it) by upbeat advertisements and promos for the network’s upcoming television programs. The sombre, often heart-wrenching, nature of the discussions is thus interrupted by a jarring promo, publicising a cooking competition or a sitcom. The dissonance is painful, and leaves me feeling that the network simply doesn’t take its own programming seriously.

Let me leave you this week with one of those ‘only in Israel’ moments: a public service announcement that has been aired repeatedly this week. This week is, paradoxically, the single time in the year when more Israelis travel abroad than at any other time, celebrating the Exodus from Egypt with an exodus from Israel). The announcement offers advice to those planning to fly from Ben Gurion airport: arrive three hours before your flight; check in online beforehand; if you have only carry-on luggage, go straight to the check-in desk. The announcement then ends with one more item, from airport security: make sure you haven’t left any live ammunition in your luggage.

When I realised that that didn’t sound strange to me, I knew I had reached a new level of acclimation to life in Israel. Wherever you are, and whenever you read this, may I wish you and all of yours a Joyous and Healthy Festival of Freedom. (Spoiler alert: Joyous even if not Happy; Freedom even if not Liberty.)

I’m writing this sitting at the table in our backyard, accompanied by the call of turtle doves, which I still find very soothing, and the more energised twitter of some smaller unidentified songbird, which not so much. The flower beds are one grand splash of reds and purples as what Google Lens informs me are our impatiens are in flamboyant colour, to which my phone’s camera does not do justice. The coffee by my right hand is full-flavoured and still hot. In short, this is a morning when it is good to be alive.

This overwhelming feeling is immensely enhanced by the fact that it is also an enormous relief to be alive, since being alive this morning was, from the vantage point of last night, by no means a given. We went to bed with the news that the Home Front had issued new instructions, suspending all educational activity for 48 hours and restricting gatherings to 1000 people. It’s true that neither of these restrictions affects us directly; our children are over school age and we weren’t, in fact, planning to attend any rock concerts this evening.

However, knowing that tens of Air Force planes had scrambled, and that the whole country was on full alert for an attack of some sort from Iran, was somewhat sobering. Learning later that drones and missiles were on their way from Iran didn’t help, even though the estimated arrival time suggested that the Iranians were using a delivery system developed by Israel’s Post Office.

The night passed, as you presumably know, accompanied by considerable pyrotechnics. Even the skies over our sleepy backwater were illuminated by the streaks and flashes of interceptions of missiles. Even our windowpanes were rattled by the explosions marking the successful elimination of yet another threat.

Not that I was aware of any of this at the time, of course. No: I slept soundly through it all. Not much chance of a missile attack waking me. I am, after all, the husband whose wife barely managed to wake him when she went into labour in the middle of the night 40 years ago.

Bernice, however, watched the entire show over Jerusalem from a front bedroom window. She assures me that it seemed as though the shrapnel was falling in the football field half a kilometre away, rather than over the hill in Jerusalem, eight miles away. By the time I woke up for a bathroom break at 3:50, all of the fun and games were over.  

Waking up this morning to discover that we had not been blown away in our beds was a particular relief for me, for a reason that I will now explain.

Every weekday, my day begins with cutting up fruit for a fruit salad that Bernice enjoys with oats, seeds and yoghourt and I eat with granola and yoghourt. On Shabbat morning, however, I have a piece of cake with my cup of tea before shul, and Bernice just has a cup of tea.

I used up the last of our thick oats last week (about 1200 grams) to make a large amount of granola. (Oats, since they are washed as part of the processing before being offered for sale, are chametz gamur – absolute leaven – and cannot be ‘sold’ for Pesach, but must be disposed of.)

This Shabbat, Esther, Maayan and Raphael came to us on Friday for dinner and stayed overnight. I know they enjoy fruit salad. I therefore decided to cut up a large bowl of fruit for the girls, which had the added bonus of encouraging them to help me out with the granola. In the end, they also took some granola home, so now I have just the right amount to finish before Pesach.

In the event, they only ate about half of the fruit salad. (I have discovered that there is more Polish mother in me than I ever previously suspected. When I make fruit salad every day for Bernice and myself, I make just the right amount. When I am making for the kids, I make about twice as much as necessary.) What this meant was that I did not have to chop up more fruit this morning.

Before we went to bed last night, Bernice remarked that she hoped we wouldn’t be blown to smithereens last night, because it would be a terrible waste of the fruit salad. So, yes: it was an even greater relief to wake up this morning.

The Home Front is urging us not to be complacent, and assuring us that the threat is far from over. My personal feeling (as I write this on Sunday morning) is that Iran has rattled its sabre sufficiently to satisfy its sense of honour, delight its supporters at home, and assuage its proxies in Gaza, Lebanon and Yemen. In meeting Iran’s challenge, Israel has retaliated sufficiently to assuage its own critics, while not risking alienating allies. Further action by Iran directly or by Israel directly against Iran is in nobody’s tactical interest.

Of course, if I am proven wrong by events between now (11:25 on Sunday morning) and publication time (9:00 on Tuesday morning) either I or this paragraph will have been deleted by the time you read the blog, so I risk my reputation as a pundit very little by writing this.

I think I may stop here, although I am well under my target length of 1500 words. The fact is that this kind of plucky British humour is only sustainable for so long.

This humour is playing out against a fundamentally unchanged but constantly deteriorating situation of 134 abductees (of whom probably fewer than 100 are currently alive). It is playing out against a ‘negotiation’ process which I still believe is a farce, since nothing that Israel can offer Hamas in return for the release of the hostages is as valuable to Hamas as the destructive effect, on Israel’s morale, internal cohesion and national spirit, of not returning the hostages. It is playing out against a war where Israel cannot completely eliminate Hamas and cannot stop trying to. It is playing out against a political situation where every day that Bibi does not announce his decision to step down further diminishes his standing, tarnishes his reputation and damages the country.

It is also playing out against a countdown to Yom Hazikaron immediately followed by Yom Ha’atzma’ut. This juxtaposition of the Memorial Day for Israel’s fallen leading into Independence Day creates every year a tension that for some is very difficult, but for the majority of the population has a particularly Israeli and Jewish poignancy. There are things worth dying for. We mourn and commemorate the dead, while also recognising and celebrating the meaning of their death, what they died for.

This year, I cannot fully visualise how that transition will be achieved. The very uniqueness of that pivoting structure makes it a potential focus for all of the frustrations, the feeling that the state deserted the people on October 7. Far from being the moment when the country comes together, the moment when Yom Hazikaron becomes Yom Ha’atzma’ut may this year be the moment when the country falls apart.

Miri Regev, the government minister responsible for planning the official transition ceremony from Yom Hazikaron to Yom Ha’atzma’ut, has announced that this year’s ceremony, always attended by thousands, will be recorded in advance, with no attendant audience. There is no doubt in my mind that this decision arises not from external security fears, but rather from fears that hostage family members or other anti-Government protestors will disrupt the ceremony. These fears do not seem to me unrealistic, although I find them profoundly disturbing.

My instinct was right. I should have stopped four paragraphs ago. Sorry!

A little housekeeping, before we start.

After last week’s outpouring, I found, on the pages of last Friday’s Jerusalem Post, a proposal for a possible ‘day after’ scenario that was not as bleak as my conclusion. Amotz Asa-El is a political commentator with an enviable grasp of the sweep of history and his is the first column I read every week in Friday’s paper. Well, not exactly: the chess problem is the first column I read, but his is the first serious column I read. While you may find his suggestion a little Polyannaish, it makes thought-provoking reading. You can find it here.

Incidentally, reading last week’s chess problem, I discovered that Humphrey Bogart was a keen and talented amateur chess-player, who was a regular opponent, in friendly games, of the world blindfold champion George Koltanowski. Lauren Bacall was, I believe, not a chess player, which explains why she said to him: ‘You know how to castle, don’t you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow.’

And now that we’ve got that out of the way, I should explain that this is one of those weeks when I’m not going to be writing a post. I just haven’t had the time. It is now gone 9PM on Monday evening, and I still have not a single idea about what to write.

The problem is that, in the last week, I haven’t had a moment to stop and think. Much like the moon blocking the sun and ploughing a swathe of still, silent blackness across North America, various major bodies in my universe have conspired to align themselves this last week, leaving me scarcely time to load the dishwasher.

First, there is the constant proliferation of medical appointments and tests. My medical year ebbs and flows like the sea’s day, although, in my case, the prime influencer is not the moon’s gravitational pull but, rather, our trips to Portugal. Scheduling of routine medical checkups is regularly deferred to the month after we return from Portugal, so these last few weeks have been very busy, from my teeth to my feet.

My latest appointment was to remove accumulated earwax. This is something I used to schedule whenever I woke up one morning to discover that overnight I had lost all hearing in one or the other ear. A couple of years ago, it occurred to me that if I scheduled to see my little Russian ENT man every six months, I need never wake up deaf again. Fortunately, he does a monthly afternoon gig in Maale Adumim, where I strongly suspect I am his only patient. This means that I can always get an appointment, and, since suctioning wax from the ears if it has not had a good 18 months to build up is a 15-second job per ear, I can, as I did today, leave home at 2:20 and be back home at 2:32, good to go for another 6 months. It gives me a sense of what a Formula One racing car must feel like after a smooth pitstop.

The doctor pointed out after he had waved his magic wand how propitious my timing was. I have taken Pesach cleaning to a new level; even my ear canals are chometz-free.

Which reminds me that, of course, Pesach cleaning is something else that really has to be treated as a priority. Every year, we become more and more efficient in our cleaning. A couple of years ago, I started tackling just one drawer unit a day in the kitchen. This year, I suspect that if I want to follow that plan I need to have started several days before I did, but we know we will get to the finish line.

Then there’s the shul magazine, the editing of which is one of the tasks that gives me a great deal of pleasure and also involves considerable levels of stress which, I read, are what is needed to stave off Alzheimer’s. Crossword and Sudoku don’t cut it, apparently; there needs to be something at stake that gives the challenge an edge.

The gathering, editing and translating of the articles all goes fairly smoothly, although there is always a period when I fear only three people are going to submit articles and then, in the space of two days, twelve people who didn’t mention anything to me send in articles. We are timing this edition to come out for Yom Ha’atzma’ut. Given the looming presence of Pesach, I pushed all the deadlines earlier, and we are in very good shape, with all but one of the articles already received, edited and translated.

Starting with the last edition, we lost the services of our very talented graphic artist, unfortunately, and were unable to find a replacement. I therefore took on that function as well. I freely admit that I have shamelessly copied the existing graphic style of the magazine. Fortunately, my skills as a forger/imitator are fairly well honed. I thoroughly enjoy the challenge of laying out the magazine, but it is very time-consuming. So, this last week has seen some long days and late nights.

Lastly, our cupboards, as always before Pesach, contain some items that are chametz gamur, which we cannot sell for the duration of Pesach but must get rid of. So, last night, I made rye bread, rye and spelt crackers, and granola. Whenever I attempt these multiple bakes, I draw up a timetable, which ensures, on paper, that the oven becomes free of Recipe A just as I need it for Recipe B, and that the prepping of Recipe C will neatly fill the baking time of Recipe B. These schedules give me immense satisfaction; on paper, their cogs and springs mesh together as in a mid-20th Century Swiss watch. On paper! Sadly, in the real world, nothing ever seems to work out. B needs to go into the oven when A still has 15 minutes in a much hotter oven. I am only halfway through the prep of C when B needs to be taken out of the oven.

Last night, uncharacteristically and magically, everything aligned in real life just as it had on paper, and I was done, washed up, floor swept wiped over, everything cooled, wrapped, and packed away, in record time. Unfortunately, I still had no idea what I was going to write about, and I was ready only for the intellectual stimulation of The Times Quick Cryptic crossword and bed.

All of which explains why (and not for the first time, as you probably don’t need me to remind you), I have nothing to write about this week. I’d like to promise that next week will be better. However, Pesach will, by then, be casting its shadow over the doorstep. The printer will be asking when the magazine is going to be ready. At least I can be confident that my earwax won’t have built up yet, so that’s 12 minutes saved!

By the time you read this post, we will be in the 180th day that Israeli abductees, civilians and soldiers, men, women and children, pensioners and a baby, are being held in who-knows-what conditions somewhere in Gaza. I have been guilty of ignoring them in the last several weeks’ posts, but I feel that a corner was turned this week that will not allow me to ignore them further.

I wish that I could tell you how many of the abductees are still alive. I wish I could tell you how many of them were already not alive on 7 October. I wish I could tell you with any certainty how many there are in total. The figure that is being publicized is 134; seldom is it pointed out that, of those 134, 11 are reliably believed to have been murdered, 10 are reliably believed to have fallen in battle, 3 have been killed in a tragic misidentification by Israeli troops.

The reason for the uncertainty is, of course, that some were abducted by Hamas, a terrorist organisation recognised as such by the civilised world (or what little remains of it), others were abducted by Islamic Jihad, a smaller terrorist organisation, and others, in all probability, were abducted by some of those Gazan civilians who are, Hamas informs us, caught in a humanitarian crisis that horrifies the civilised world.

Presumably, these are some of the Gazans that were recently polled as supporting Hamas’s pogrom on 7 October. As The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) reported on March 22, 71% of all Palestinians recently polled supported Hamas’s decision to attack Israel on October 7, up 14 points among Gazans and down 11 points among West Bank Palestinians compared to three months ago. Fifty-nine percent of all Palestinians believe Hamas should rule Gaza, and 70 percent are satisfied with the role Hamas has played during the war.

Given that the abductors are either members of one or other terrorist organisation or are unaffiliated ‘freelance’ Gazans, it should not surprise anyone that no details of the hostages have been released by those abductors: no numbers, no list of names, no record of whether they are living or dead. The Red Cross has, I hardly need tell you, not been allowed access to visit the abductees. Does anyone believe that the medication Israel provided for the chronically sick among the abductees has reached those abductees?

The New York Times (a newspaper not remotely supportive of Israel) carried last week a story featuring the testimony of Amit Soussana, a 40-year-old released abductee who is the first such person to speak about the sexual assaults she suffered at the hands of her Hamas captor. Pramilla Patten, the United Nations special representative on sexual violence in conflict, visited Israel from January 29 to February 14. She brought an investigative team that included forensic scientists, interviewers specialising in survivor interviews and experts in video technology and ‘fake AI’ detection.

The UN report published after the visit confirmed that “sexual violence, including genital mutilation, sexualised torture, or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” was perpetrated by Hamas terrorists during the 7 October attack. The report also confirms that there is “clear and convincing information that sexual violence, including rape, sexualized torture, cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, has been committed against hostages,” and that the remaining female hostages were being subjected to ongoing “sexualized torture.”

All of those quotes, I reiterate, are from a UN report.

I suspect you didn’t need me to tell you any of the above. I felt, nevertheless, that I needed to, to give context to what I am about to say.

I had a very depressing conversation this past week, with someone who is very well-informed, and who is a lifelong committed Zionist. Let’s call my collocutor Val. In the course of that conversation, Val expressed concern about the right-wing extremists who have central roles in the Government, and who are “expressing racist views”. Val, clearly concerned about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, then went on to ask my opinion about how the war, and the situation, will be resolved.

In my less than polished reply, I found myself making a number of points that led me to a conclusion. Let me attempt to marshal them here in a more organised form.

The entire population of Israel, the leadership of the US and Britain and the rest of the free world, recognise Hamas as a terrorist organisation that, by its own charter, seeks the destruction of Israel; that, by its statements since 7 October, intends to perpetrate similar pogroms again and again; that, by its actions in Gaza, has demonstrated and continues to demonstrate that, at best, it does not care about Palestinian civilian casualties and, at worst, it seeks to maximise Palestinian civilian casualties.

Knowing this, we all know that there is absolutely no point in attempting to negotiate a resolution of this conflict with Hamas. This is the reason why all parties are pressuring Israel to bring about an immediate ceasefire, which may then lead to a release of hostages, and nobody is pressuring Hamas to immediately release the hostages, which may then lead to a ceasefire.

It is also the reason why the families of the abductees are continuing to call on the Israeli government to bring home the hostages, and not demanding to meet with the Hamas leaders in Doha or calling on Hamas to release the hostages. In the 1970s, the Jewish world did not demand of the Israeli government: ‘Bring My People Home’. Instead, it demanded of Soviet Russia: ‘Let My People Go’, because it knew that, if the pressure were sufficient, the Soviets would recognise that it was in their realpolitik interests to comply. Hamas, in contrast, is in total thrall to its politico-religious fundamentalist ideology.

(Incidentally, I can think of no good reason why Hamas would ever agree to release even one more hostage. By not releasing hostages it is inflicting incredible pain on the whole country and also ripping Israel apart again.)

And yet, and yet: at the same time, there is an extraordinary dissonance going on. Almost the entire free world, and even, it appears, the Israeli government, is behaving as if Hamas is the rational and moral representative of a country. Israel is being told by the same bodies that recognise Hamas for what it is, that the resolution of the situation must be a two-state solution. Last week, the historian and commentator Gil Troy suggested that we should instead be calling for a ‘two-democracy’ solution. The question then becomes: How do we bring Gaza to the point where it can become a democratic state?

My answer to that, I am mildly surprised to discover, is that I do not believe it can be done. In 2005, Israel withdrew from Gaza. The Gazans’ first act, after that withdrawal, was to loot and burn everything Israel left behind: from the houses to the state-of-the-art hydroponic fruit and vegetable greenhouses, in which Gazans had been employed. Their self-interest was sacrificed to their ideology.

In January 2006, elections were held throughout the PA. Gaza was divided into five electoral districts, from North Gaza down to Rafah. The 24 seats contested were split between these districts in accordance with the distribution of the electorate. Hamas received 44.45% of the vote throughout the Palestinian Authority compared to Fatah’s 41.43%. Broadly speaking, Hamas dominated Northern Gaza in the election, and Fatah won in the southernmost district. However, because of the complicated seat-allocation system used, and probably because Hamas analysed the system and worked it more effectively than Fatah, Hamas won 15 of the 24 seats and Fatah won only 8.

I have not been able to find any percentage figures exclusively for Gaza, other than for the Northern Gaza district, whose 6 seats were all won by Hamas, despite their polling only just under 47% of the vote, to Fatah’s just over 36%.

It is also almost certainly true that Hamas approached the elections very cannily, fielding candidates in accordance with careful mathematical calculation and temporarily dropping their Charter call for Israel’s destruction, in hopes of winning over moderate voters tired of Fatah corruption. Nevertheless, there is no disputing that Hamas won the 2006 election decisively and, within the electoral definition, democratically.

In 2007, in violent clashes with Fatah, Hamas effectively seized power, quashed all opposition and has held power since. If all of this reminds you of the rise to power of Hitler, then hold that thought.

So, who is Israel actually fighting at the moment? I would suggest that, in the same way as Britain did not declare war on Nazism in 1939, but rather on Nazi Germany, so, too, Israel is fighting not Hamas but Hamas-governed Gaza. That being the case, and given that Hamas does not distinguish its warriors from civilians by dressing them in uniform, or distinguish between civilian and military establishments, but rather houses its headquarters in hospitals and schools and mosques, Israel would, I feel, be justified in acknowledging Hamas’ decisions and waging war against Gaza.

However, of course, Israel has done no such thing. Let’s assume that the Hamas Health Ministry’s official figures for deaths and injuries are accurate (in itself a huge assumption, since Hamas and its media have been inflating figures consistently). Let’s also assume that the IDF figures for Hamas fighters killed are accurate (a more reasonable assumption, since the IDF is able to provide names of many of those killed). If we then calculate the number of civilians killed in proportion to the number of combatants killed, we arrive at a figure that may be unprecedented in any war, and is certainly unprecedented in any entirely urban war, as this is.

If we, further, understand what the legal definition of ‘proportionality’ is in terms of civilian casualties in wartime, then clearly Israel is, rather than committing genocide, carrying out a just war with full respect for international conventions of war.

Let’s jump to some bottom lines. If ‘winning the war’ means eliminating Hamas completely, then Israel cannot win the war. The best it can hope to achieve militarily is a much more severe than usual mowing of the lawn, which will mean reserving to itself the right to go back in and mow the lawn again periodically in the future. Part of the price of that solution will almost certainly be that the residents of the Gaza envelope will never be able to return home. Another part of the price of that solution is that Gazans will live under the threat of Israeli military operations within heavily populated areas of Gaza to eradicate terrorists.

If the long-term aim is to bring Gaza to the point where it can be a viable democratic state, then I see no way that that can be achieved. The hatred is by now so deeply embedded, the corruption, of Gazans and UN bodies, so complete, the pool of talent and ability in Gaza so depleted, as generation after generation of able Gazans move abroad to pursue a career and a fulfilled life, that the Gazans that are left are simply not equipped to turn Gaza around.

I genuinely do not see any solution that will make it possible for Israelis to live securely within Israel and Gazans to live freely in Gaza. Which leads me to one stark conclusion. If nothing that anyone does can create a situation where the Gazans will accept a Jewish state and live in peace alongside it, then it is inhumane, and insane, to continue as we are, condemning generation after generation of Israelis to a tangible existential threat, and generation after generation of Gazans to living unfulfilled and unstable lives under the nonsensical and cruel label of ‘Palestinian refugees’ in perpetuity that the UN created.

So, what is my plan for the day after? How do I see this situation being resolved? There are, I would suggest, only two options.

We can call an end to the Zionist venture, and condemn Jews to be again defenceless against the world’s hatred and dispersed amongst the nations. On an individual level, many Israelis are considering taking, and some have already taken, that step. I cannot condemn them. It is a moral act of considerable bravery. On past form, as confirmed by what is happening now throughout the free world, this will mean permanent insecurity for the Jews, frequent forced or voluntary emigration from one temporary haven to another, occasional or less occasional mass murder. Nothing in today’s world suggests that the fate of the Jews in the diaspora will be better in the future than it has been in the past.

Or we can encourage the Gazans to leave Gaza, perhaps by offering financial incentives to the Gazans and to potential host countries. ‘Where are they supposed to go?’ you ask. There are no end of Arab countries. Let them spread themselves throughout the Arab world. Just over two million Gazans represent about 0.45% of the population of all Arab states. Their lives will almost certainly be materially better and more secure elsewhere, and their grandchildren will thank them for it.

Let me ask you a couple of questions.

Do you honestly see any practical resolution other than the two options I have presented? If so, I would love you to offer it in the comments below.

Does one solution seem more acceptable to you than the other? Do you give any weight to the fact that, uniquely, the Land of Israel was promised to the People of Israel by the God of Israel? Possibly not. How about the fact that Israel’s right to exist as an independent state was supported by the family of nations in 1947? Not good enough? What about the fact that there has never in history been an independent state of Palestine, whereas Jews twice lived in the Land of Israel as an independent nation in Biblical times? Jews were made a nation by God when he took them out of Egypt. The Palestinians became a nation when their leaders deemed it politically expedient half a century ago. Does the fact of unbroken Jewish residence throughout the Land of Israel from Biblical times to the modern era carry any weight with you?

I reached the end of writing this, and could not really believe that the argument had led me to the devastating conclusion that it’s us or them. (I know that some of my readers will be astonished that it has taken me this long to ‘wake up’ to reality.) So I read the post again, desperately hoping to find where my argument is forced or distorting. I can’t see it, I’m afraid. Believe me that I wish I could. I invite you, I implore you, to point out to me where my argument falls down.

Now that’s a title not all parts of which will resonate with all of you, but I can guarantee that my brother-in-law David will, as soon as he reads it, be unable to shake from his head the sound of Ken Dodd singing. Others of you will be reminded of Charles Schultz, and, more specifically, Snoopy.

Most of you, I hope, will have realised by now that today’s theme is happiness. Three events in the last seven days contrived to align in suggesting this topic to me. The first was Purim (which, depending on who and where you are, you celebrated either on Sunday or on Monday, or not at all). There has been lots of discussion in Israel in recent days about how we can celebrate Purim wholeheartedly this year. However, on the evidence of what I have seen and heard today, while there seems to be less of the not necessarily appropriate craziness that sometimes marks Purim, there has been much joy, as we take heart from the message of the Purim story.

Last week was marked by the UN’s International Day of Happiness, my second event. This day has been celebrated on March 20 every year since 2013, following a resolution initiated by Bhutan, of which more later. The third event I will come to much later in this blog.

So, how did you celebrate the International Day of Happiness (IDH) this year? Me too. Very little attention seems to be paid to the day itself, but rather more is paid to the annual World Happiness Report, which purported, this year, to rank 143 individual countries according to how happy their citizens are. Before we look at some of those ranks, we need to clarify some issues.

First, the score and, therefore, the ranking for the current year for each country actually represent the average of that country’s score for each of the previous three years: so, 2024’s score is an average of 2021–2023. Given what Israel has been through in 2023 and, so far, 2024, you might question how accurate a reflection of the current situation this year’s score and ranking are.

In addition, the UN’s view of national happiness is, some would argue, a controversial one. Their online announcement for IDH states: ‘Happiness is a fundamental human goal. The United Nations General Assembly recognizes this goal and calls for “a more inclusive, equitable and balanced approach to economic growth that promotes the happiness and well-being of all peoples.”’

It is arguable whether Bhutan would fully endorse this explanation of how to promote national happiness. Indeed, Bhutan’s adoption of happiness as a national value was quite consciously intended as a rejection of an economic definition of happiness. For at least 400 years, Bhutan’s legal code has recognised that, “if the government cannot create happiness for its people, then there is no purpose for government to exist”.

So, when, in the early 1970’s, His Majesty Jigme Singye Wangchuck, the Fourth King of Bhutan, promulgated the concept of Gross National Happiness (GNH), questioning whether the prevailing measurement system’s claim that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) alone could deliver happiness and well-being to society, he found a ready audience. When Bhutan became a democracy in 2008, the Constitution including the statement: “The State shall strive to promote those conditions that will enable the pursuit of Gross National Happiness.”

The measurement and screening of GNH in Bhutan considers 9 domains, divided into 38 sub-indexes, as shown in the following diagram. These domains reflect, among other things, the Buddhism that is a significant part of Bhutanese culture.

For the WHP, the criteria are a little different. The World Happiness Report is a partnership of Gallup, the Oxford Wellbeing Research Centre, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, and the WHR’s Editorial Board. Their website gives insight into their methodology:

“Life evaluations from the Gallup World Poll provide the basis for the annual happiness rankings. They are based on answers to the main life evaluation question. The Cantril Ladder asks respondents to think of a ladder, with the best possible life for them being a 10 and the worst possible life being a 0. They are then asked to rate their own current lives on that 0 to 10 scale. The rankings are from nationally representative samples over three years.

“We use observed data on…six variables and estimates of their associations with life evaluations to explain the variation across countries. [These variables are] GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity, and corruption. Our happiness rankings are not based on any index of these six factors – the scores are instead based on individuals’ own assessments of their lives, in particular, their answers to the single-item Cantril ladder life-evaluation question, much as epidemiologists estimate the extent to which life expectancy is affected by factors such as smoking, exercise, and diet.”

This highlights the third area that requires clarification. Just what is the WHP measuring? It labels that something ‘happiness’. However, the quotation in the last two paragraphs would suggest that what is being measured is not, as you might initially suspect, ‘joy’, but, rather, something like ‘satisfaction with one’s life’. If I were forced to offer a one-word definition, I might choose ‘fulfilment’.

Clearly, nobody would want to argue that material considerations are irrelevant to human happiness. However, you can certainly argue that these are not the only, nor even, perhaps, the most important, elements in determining fulfilment.

All of which may go some way to explaining some of the more surprising rankings in the 2024 (actually 32021-2023) table. Consider this, for example. Israel is ranked 6^th happiest of the 143 countries. Among young people up to the age of 30, it is ranked 2^nd, bettered only by Lithuania. Among those aged 60 and above, it is ranked 18^th.

Incidentally, the corresponding rankings for US and UK are as follows:

	Overall	Under 30s	Over 60s
US	23rd	62nd	10th
UK	20th	32nd	20th

Statistics are, unfortunately, not available for Bhutan, because “Bhutan was excluded from the 2021 report due to a technicality: Each country’s scores are based upon detailed Gallup polls, but Gallup did not conduct polling in Bhutan during the required timeframe.” This should mean that Bhutan will be included in 2025’s report (for the years 2022-2024), although conspiracy theorists may remain sceptical.

At this point, I’m going to stick my neck out, and offer an opinion for which I have no tangible evidence. I believe that Israel’s high rank is attributable to three separate key elements. The first is the important role that family plays in Israeli life. Both the nuclear and the extended family are nurtured and celebrated in Israeli national life.

To give one, perhaps trivial, example (and perhaps not). At the ceremony marking the start of Israel’s Independence Day every year, twelve individuals from various walks of life are honoured by being selected to light twelve beacons, representing the twelve tribes of Israel. Each honouree precedes the lighting by declaring in whose honour they are lighting: this might typically be, for example, a sector of public life such as the health service, or youth movements.

Each declaration follows a formula: it ends with the words: “and for the glory of Israel”, and begins along the lines of: “I, Jane Doe, daughter of Shimon, of blessed memory, and Dinah, may she live a long life”. In other words, those who have been singled out because of their life achievements, begin by acknowledging their parentage. This, of course, reflects the Jewish religious convention of naming.  

The second key element is that Israel is a country whose citizens recognise and identify with a national purpose. We share and value a common past and seek to work towards a common future. Of course, this is not always obvious, and, national unity is not something that was much in evidence for the first nine months of 2023. However, as I may have pointed out before, both those demonstrating in support of the government’s plans for judicial reform, and those demonstrating against the government’s plan for judicial revolution marched under the national flag. They were united in their desire to achieve what they perceived as being best for the country.

Third is a strong sense of community. Both those who belong to a religious community, and those who are not religious, are very likely to feel a strong connection to, and responsibility towards, their local community. Neighbourly concern, supporting local charities, volunteering, are all typical throughout Israeli society.

That, at least, is my take. Now to come to the third event this past week that got me thinking about happiness/contentment/fulfilment. After a long hiatus, Micha’el uploaded a video to the family’s youtube channel. You can view it here. I recommend you view it now, and I promise to wait here until you come back.

Not the easiest watch, I’ll agree, although easier to watch than to make, I suspect. But my takeaway is this: because Tslil and Micha’el are committed to their vision, they are able to deal with the setbacks that they have faced. I hope you were able to see beyond the downbeat mood of the video and sense, obviously not joy, but the fulfilment of engagement with something that matters to you, or, for want of a better word, happiness. And if happiness can be not yet succeeding with your water pump, then I think you’re in an enviable place.

I am writing this post from the Economy section of an El Al flight. (Paying subscribers get a post written from Business class.) If the post seems radically different from the last written in mid-air, that may be because I am now facing East, rather than West, as we head back home after four hectic but wonderful weeks in Portugal. Friends are advised not to ask Bernice and myself ‘Did you enjoy your holiday?’, but we did, in fact, have a great, if exhausting, time. As we drove back to Lisbon this morning at 120 kph on cruise control through bright sunlight and an outside temperature of 26^o , we remarked, as we often do, how fortunate we are that our children share their house with us so generously for a month at a time, and that our grandsons regard us as so natural a part of their lives.

Once again, this week I have nothing overly dramatic to report. I wrote a couple of weeks ago about Ollie’s advances in speech. In the last couple of days of our visit he seemed to take another dramatic leap forward, and his active vocabulary is now growing every day. He has added ‘Nana’ and ‘Grandpa’ (smart child), as well as ‘bubbles’, ‘down’ (as the natural partner to his favourite ‘up’), ‘bread’ (this is a child who loves his food) and, this morning, ‘please’. He even attempted on one occasion to follow the most difficult instruction in a charming picture book ‘Tickle My Ears’, in which the child being read to is encouraged to adopt a hands-on approach to helping a rabbit get ready for bed. Ollie has long been willing to tickle the rabbit’s ears, pat its back, clap his hands, switch off the light, but he attempted for the first time to say ;’Hoppity-hop’ to encourage the rabbit to get into bed.

Tao, meanwhile, is taking his first major steps in reading. He has, for some time, been able to recognise, and write, his own name. How far-thinking his parents were when they named him! (Pity his cousin Raphael when he first tries to write his name in English.) In our last couple of weeks in Portugal, Bernice spent ten minutes almost every day starting Tao on a reading program. She is not a fan of phonics. Rather, he learnt, as his father and his Auntie Esther did, with ‘Peter and Jane’, and it is fair to say that he took to it very quickly and is thoroughly enjoying the sense of achievement it gives him. It is so exciting when, as one or other of us is reading to him in the evening, he suddenly exclaims: ‘That’s one of my words – ‘and’!’

Our last full day in Penamacor was Sunday, which was Tao’s 5^th birthday. Celebrations actually began on the previous Thursday, when we all went down to the kid’s land for the planting of Tao’s birthday tree. His first birthday was marked by the planting of an almond tree, which was followed by a pomegranate and a plum. For some reason, he missed out last year, but this year, for the first time, he went with Tslil to the plant nursery to choose his own tree. He chose a black cherry (what a great choice, promising, in the fulness of time, delicious fruit and generous shade).

The site that Tslil chose proved to be very clay-heavy soil, which made digging the required hole very hard work. I attempted to help Micha’el with wielding the pick to break up the soil and the spade to drag it out of the hole, but I quickly found that the three years since I helped digging the swale have not been kind to my body, and settled for serving as one of the official photographers. All that remained was for each of us to place a stone by the tree, with, on each stone, a single word representing our birthday wish for Tao.

It proved to be a lovely afternoon on the land. Warmer weather made the last two weeks of our visit even more pleasant, and we could sense that spring is arriving, something I also became aware of on my morning walks in the forest with the kid’s dog, Lua. Over the last week, the forest has come alive with new growth. Purple, white and blue wildflowers are starting to carpet the slopes, and new growth of oak and pine saplings is replacing the mature trees felled in storms last winter. This is all against the backdrop of the still snow-capped foothills of the Sierra da Estrella mountain range on the horizon.

After the Thursday family ceremony, Tao had a birthday celebration in gan the next day, the highlight of which was the chocolate cake Tslil made. He came home with a birthday crown which, in Bernice’s considered professional opinion, was not a patch on what is standard in Israeli gamin, but he seems to have enjoyed himself nevertheless.

Then, on Sunday, Tao had a full day of celebration, starting with opening his presents, from all of which he extracted the maximum enjoyment, as he seems to do from all his toys. Tslil’s parents took out in Tao’s name a subscription to a concept built around a hedgehog’s year-long journey around the world. Every month Tao will receive a personal letter from the hedgehog, whose progress he will follow on the world map included in the first month’s package. In this way, Tao will learn all sorts of fascinating facts about different countries, including their native animals. When I pointed out to him where Portugal and Israel were on the map, and also Britain, he pointed to the tiny clock-tower illustrating Britain and, to everyone’s surprise, announced ‘That’s Big Ben’, a fact he had presumably gleaned from some video or other.

Our present, following Micha’el’s suggestion, was shamelessly much less worthy, being a remote-controlled stunt car. It proved to be a huge hit with all four of us little boys, although the womenfolk seemed less keen to get their hands on the remote control. To my great relief, the rechargeable battery lasted on one charge for as respectable a time as the manufacturer claimed in the product description online. To top it all, we were able to buy it in royal blue, Tao’s favourite colour. Within minutes, he had mastered spins and flips and wheelies and Micha’el constructed a magnetile ramp that allowed Tao to put the car through its paces very effectively.

Sunday afternoon brought a party with a couple of Tao’s friends, involving the usual games, balloons, noise-makers and sugar rushes. It was all a bit too much for Ollie (and, to be honest, me) but for those who fell within the appropriate age range it was a huge success.

And then, before we knew it, it was Monday morning (this morning, though it seems an age ago), and a mad rush of packing, last games, last breakfast, with Ollie, as usual, eating fruit faster than I could cut it for Bernice and myself, last book-reading and then the goodbyes that we try not to linger over too much. Tao, obviously, understands that we are going back to Israel and that he won’t see us until the summer. Ollie, sadly, doesn’t, and we’re sure he won’t find it easy when Nana is suddenly no longer there with her eminently snugglable shoulder, her cuddles and kisses, her songs and stories. Fortunately, the boys have two parents who are completely devoted to them, and we know they are certainly not going to be missing out at all.

As for us, we’re off home to recuperate and make our plans for our summer trip in three months, God willing.

As we move towards our last week in Penamacor, I find myself looking forward, in a way that I never have before, to returning home. Usually, a month out of Israel is a welcome escape from the constant barrage that is the Israeli news cycle. If, as Harold Wilson is often reported as saying, a week is a long time in politics, then in Israel a day is a very long time in the newscycle.

The upside of that, usually, is that if you miss a couple of hourly news bulletins, most of what you have missed may never be mentioned again in the news, so you can feel that you haven’t really missed anything. However, we live in times that are, of course, far from usual, and I feel very cut off from the Israeli pulse.

For the last two months, my staple news supply has been a thrice-daily digest distributed to a quiet WhatsApp group. The organisation that is responsible for this feed is dedicated to presenting news in a non-sensationalist and dry format, and it has certainly made the news easier to digest. Bernice and I are continuing to read that regularly here, but I realise that what I am missing is more the reactions to the news: the radio and TV interviews and background pieces, the exchanges between radio presenters.

Occasionally on my morning walks with Lua, I manage to catch one of those morning programmes live, and even more occasionally I listen to one from the archive. However, I am following events much less closely than I would be if I were in Israel, and I am also failing to read online the range of opinion pieces in the paper that I would read in Israel.

That sense of isolation is, of course, only increased by the fact that I don’t share a language with the kids’ neighbours, and so cannot get involved in discussions with them. I suspect, anyway, that their interest in, and knowledge of, Middle Eastern affairs is pretty limited. Indeed, I am not at all sure that they have any interest in current affairs generally. This Sunday saw Portugal go to the polls in a general election triggered by the resignation of the centre-left prime minister after a long series of corruption scandals. This is against a background of spiralling housing prices in the big cities, salaries well below the EU norm, an ailing health service, and economic stagnation.

The election produced a very narrow lead for the centre right over the centre left, these being the two parties that have, alternately, governed the country since the Carnation Revolution of 50 years ago. However, potentially the most interesting development is that the only recently formed extreme right party almost tripled its share of the vote, winning 48 of the 230 parliamentary seats. To give you a sense of the party’s platform, among its more interesting policies is chemical castration for sex offenders. Meanwhile, the centre-right won 79 and the centre-left 77 seats.

Interestingly, both before and after the election, the centre-right party pledged that it would not seek a coalition with the far-right to form a government. The centre-left announced that, in that event, if the centre-right sought to govern without an absolute majority, the centre-left would not act to bring down the government.

Government corruption? The rise of the far right? Electoral instability? Coalition governments? No wonder I feel homesick.

All of this has, I imagine, made for a spirited election campaign. However, walking around the village over the last two weeks, and even on election day itself, I saw absolutely no signs of an election: no banners, no posters, no loudspeakers. Of course, the entire electoral district of Castelo Branco, in which we find ourselves, returns only 4 of the 230 members of the legislature. Although it is geographically one of the largest districts in Portugal, it is also one of the least densely populated,

I can, however, tell you about one poster. One of the political scandals that led to the government’s downfall involved a police raid on the home of the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff, a raid which uncovered a large sum in cash. Apparently, IKEA has launched a poster campaign in the big cities, featuring a bookcase with the following slogan: Good for storing books. Or €75,800.

Earlier today, Bernice and I went with both the boys to the local supermarket, to start our purchases of provisions for Tao’s birthday party next Sunday. As I was returning the trolleys after loading the car, a woman in her 60’s greeted me with a cheery ‘Shalom’. This is, of course, one of the advantages of wearing a kippa. At least, for most of my life, and in almost every country I have been in, it has been an advantage. I have struck up many enjoyable conversations as a result of advertising my Jewishness.

These days, of course, I would hesitate to wear a kippa even walking around one of the big cities of Portugal, let alone anywhere more aggressively antisemitic. However, in Penamacor, everyone knows who Bernice and I are, and what our background is.

Anyway, this lady introduced herself as a Belgian who has lived in a village a few miles away for the last three years. She clearly feels an affinity with Jews, because she mentioned a number of Israelis that we have met. She also expressed sympathy and concern for what we are going through now in Israel.

In the course of our conversation, she mentioned an Israeli whom we have met several times. Retiring early from a successful career in Israel, he moved his family (his wife and, I believe, six children, from kindergarten to high-school age) to Portugal, bought a piece of land, and had a family home built on the land while renting a house in Penamacor. He and the family clearly lead a very traditional Jewish life, and Bernice and I have speculated about how the family would cope, particularly as the children approached marriageable age.

Well, my new-found Belgian friend informed me that his oldest boy insisted that he wanted to accept his call-up to the Israeli army and so the family are letting out their newly-built house and have all returned to Israel. When I asked her whether she thought they would return to Portugal, she was sceptical. I must say I share her scepticism.

Other than that, there is little new to report from here. The weather has swung between fairly heavy rain and bright sunshine, so we have been able to get out with the boys on several occasions. Later this week, if the planets all align, Bernice and I are planning a half-day in Castello by ourselves, including lunch, before we enter the mad turmoil of the last few days with family birthday celebrations, Shabbat, a party for a couple of Tao’s friends, laundry, packing and saying our farewells until our next visit which, we hope, will manage to include both Michael’s and Ollie’s birthdays, which will give us a calendar grand slam.