The Journey of life.
It may sound cliche — but it’s hardly so. Life truly is a journey — many stops along the way. Each stop representing a significant moment in our life’s mission on this earth.
Though we love to see things in real time, at best, we get a mere glimpse of a deeper more transcendent plan — mostly recognizable in hindsight.
I was very moved recently when hearing of 100 year old holocaust survivor Kurt Marx, who read from the same Torah that he read from at his Bar Mitzvah, just two months before Kristallnacht.
“ When I read the same portion I read as a child, before my life was turned upside down, it felt as though all the years in between disappeared for a moment.”
“The remarkable reunion with the Sefer Torah began when Marx discovered an old document recording its arrival at a London synagogue in 1939”
Standing once again before the Sefer Torah from which he had read as a 13-year-old, Marx described the moment as far more than rediscovering a treasured object.
“It was restoring a living connection to my family, my community, and the world the Holocaust tried to destroy,” he said.”
A living connection. The Torah the connector. Generations melting away. Location irrelevant. The connector. The center of gravity. The beachhead. The Truth. The Torah!
As we traverse our journey some things travel with us. It merely requires cognizance and appreciation for them. It makes the journey all the more meaningful and ultimately enduring and eternal.
Walking through the halls of Gan Izzy and hearing the fun, the joy, the chants together with the wide array of exciting and creative activities, I know that what’s being created is way more than a fantastic summer; more than memories which too begin to fade at some point. Rather, It’s melting away the constraints of time and place — connecting us all to the past and creating a powerful future!
The journey. Many stops, many stages. Many choices, many challenges. Many memorable moments with many we’d love to forget. Yet most of all — it’s the story of our lives that continue to live on in perpetuity!
Am Yisrael Chai!
With best wishes for a Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Yehuda & Dina Kantor
P.S. We are looking for sponsors to help us make Gan Izzy even better. If you’d like to explore the opportunities that will bear fruit for generations to come — please email me. We’d love to hear from you! Or here’s a link for a quick donation to our effort — here.