In Memory of Esther Zuroff z”l
In Parshat Mishpatim, we read about
God’s promise to Moshe that B’nai Yisrael will be brought to the Land of Israel
and that God will protect them there. In Shmot 23:26, we read: “No woman will
suffer miscarriage or remain childless in your land. I will cause the number of
your days to be full.”
This means that in an ideal world, women
would carry their babies to term and give birth to healthy children who would
live full lives.
According to Ramban, this would be a
true miracle which would include no deaths from war, plague or illness. Rather,
people would die at a ripe old age- whatever happens to be the normal span of
life in that particular generation (during the time of King David people lived
into their seventies and eighties).
This blessing can’t come soon
enough. After teaching an eight week fertility workshop and seeing what trials
and tribulations the women in the group are going through in order to conceive and
give birth to a healthy full term baby, I can only pray that they are blessed
and that “no woman will suffer a miscarriage or remain childless” as each baby
is truly a miracle.
This past week, Israel suffered a
great loss as a twenty-nine year old teacher, husband and father of four, Rabbi
Itamar Ben Gal z”l was murdered by a nineteen year old Israeli-Arab while
waiting at a bus stop. This senseless murder especially affected our community
as Rabbi Ben Gal’s sister teaches at our elementary school in Jerusalem and over
the years has taught our children. This murder took place just a month after
Rabbi Raziel Shevach, a thirty-five years old mohel, husband and father of six
was fatally shot.
Both rabbis lost their lives because
they were Jewish. Now more than ever we need God’s protection of the Jewish
people in the land of Israel as stated in our parsha.
May the miracles of Shmot 23:26 be
fulfilled speedily in our days and may the blessing that we recite during the
Sheva Brachot (Seven Blessings) at each wedding be fulfilled: “Bring intense
joy and exultation to the barren one (Jerusalem) through the ingathering of her
children amidst her in gladness. Blessed are you, God, Who gladdens Zion
through her children.”
May we be blessed in celebrating
happy occasions in Jerusalem and throughout Israel.