JEWISH FAMILY EDUCATION
Fall down, get up
The Power of Stories Series Attacked, stripped, and dumped underground, a teen shivered while the gang debated his fate for disrespecting “the family” and making pretentious claims to power. Traded to local traffickers and transported to a foreign
Candace R. Kwiatek country, the teen was eventually sold to the captain of an elite military guard. Recognized for his capabilities and potential, the young slave advanced in position and power until a false accusation landed him in prison. Nearly a decade later, he was released as a free man and pardoned by the country’s leader, who placed him in a key administrative position in the national public policy sector. His name was Joseph. In the biblical account, Joseph descends three times: His brothers cast him into a pit, Ishmaelite traders transport
him to Egypt as a slave, and he is thrown into an Egyptian prison. “Each time, however,” writes spiritual leader Danny Maseng, “he is raised up again a better Joseph, destined for a better life.” In Judaism, this phenomenon is known as yerida l’tzorech aliyah, a descent that facilitates an ascent. Built into the very design of all creation, it describes the patterns of history, the movement of peoples, even the nature of individual lives. In the beginning, the Torah declares, there was chaos and darkness. Then God brought forth order and light. Dark before light. The talmudic sages imagine Adam’s first day in the Garden. “Woe is me,” he cried as the sun set, “the world is becoming dark, returning to chaos and disorder.” When dawn broke, he said in wonderment, “Evidently, the sun sets and night arrives, and this is the order of the world.” Night before day. Descent for the sake of ascent. We read of Jacob’s famineplagued family who were
welcomed into Egypt like nobility, only for their descendants to be enslaved by a pharaoh “who knew not Joseph.” Hundreds of years later, Moses led them in the Exodus to Sinai. Slavery before freedom and revelation. Descent for the sake of ascent. Involuntarily married to the pagan King Ahashverus, the Jewish Queen Esther was perfectly positioned to reveal Haman’s evil plot and save the Persian Jews. Descent for the sake of ascent. Ruled by the increasingly tyrannical Hellenizing Syrian- Joseph Is Sold by His Brothers, Gustave Greeks, the Maccabees of Ju- Doré, 1866 will never sprout and grow dea rebelled and triumphed. unless it first disintegrates into Their legacy? The first indethe earth.” There is no rising pendent Jewish state in Judea in over 400 years. Inspiration to without first falling, as we see in the following stories. fight for religious freedom and The Gladiator. A gladiator liberty. And Chanukah, commemorating the rededication of and bandit, Resh Lakish saw a figure bathing in the Jordan the Temple and reminding us River. Jumping in to pursue it, that light can come from darkhe found only Rabbi Yochanan, ness. Yerida l’tzorech aliyah. who exclaimed, “Your strength In a famous letter, the is fit for Torah.” Resh Lakish Lubavitcher Rebbe used countered, “Your beauty is fit surgery to illustrate the confor women.” Rabbi Yochanan cept that an ascent can only be cleverly offered, “If you return achieved by a prior descent. to the study of Torah, I will “A Martian entering an give you my sister in marriage, operating theatre wouldn’t who is more beautiful than I imagine that the surgical team am.” Resh Lakish accepted. was doing something good by Under the tutelage of Rabbi cutting the patient open,” he wrote, “that it would ultimately Yochanan, he became Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish, one of the restore the person to health.” most prominent Torah scholars Similarly, Rabbi Shlomo of of his generation. Radomsk observed, “A seed The Tourist. Somber visits to Holocaust sites in Poland and the Czech Republic during a senior-year trip brought high schooler Penina Graubart face to face with her family history and the near-destruction of the
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Jewish people. “I was at my lowest point,” she remembers, but there she found inspiration. Dedicating herself to protecting present and future Jews would become her new mission. She went on to explore Israel, deciding to make it her home. Today Penina attends university in Israel where she advocates on behalf of the Jewish people. The Volunteer. “You are the most despicable, disgraceful and rude person! I think you need to change your attitude, and I wish you luck!” Miriam heard on the voice mail message. A volunteer organizer of the local gemach (free loan service), she was heartsick, her eyes filling with tears. She had explained there was no storage room for additional items at the moment. And she had been accused of screaming. She had offered a referral to another gemach and was accused of making excuses. And now the voice mail? Could there be any truth in the caller’s accusations? On reflection, Miriam realized she was spread too thin and burned out, influencing her attitude and interactions. After making some changes, her volunteer work was once again infused with joy and kindness. “God created the world in a way that in order to jump, you must first crouch down,” writes Rabbi Ari Shvat. “Yerida l’tzorech aliyah. There is no advancement in life without first going down.” Or, as Rabbi Sheila Peltz Weinberg puts it, “Life is an endless series of events that can be encapsulated in the phrase, ‘fall down, get up.’”
Literature to share The Upstander: How Surviving the Holocaust Sparked Max Glauben’s Mission to Dismantle Hate by Jori Epstein. This short, powerful memoir reads like a conversation between two friends, Max and Jori, a young reporter who magically captures Max’s exuberant personality. Unusually observant from childhood, Max recounts endless experiences peppered with remembered thoughts and images along with funny and poignant anecdotes. Woven in are historical records that add another layer to his tale. He warns against the insidious nature of hate, but his ultimate message is that one must deliberately choose a positive life. My Israel and Me by Alice McGinty. My Israel and Me takes young readers on an inviting journey through the land, history, and cultures of Israel. Told from a child’s perspective in rhyming quartets, each experience includes a prose sidebar with added detail. Colorful illustrations showcase modern cities, historical sites, landscapes, and marketplaces while portraying the diversity of Israel’s people: European, Ethiopian, Bedouin, Muslim, and more. Everyone contributes something unique to the land. An excellent introduction to Israel on many levels, highly recommended for home or school.
THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2022
