I guess it’s that time of year again. I saw the English version of the prayer in one of the English Israeli newspapers last week. I thought it was a nice sentiment and didn’t think much else about it. Then this week I received a WhatsApp text from my local Ra’anana shul containing the Hebrew version of it. So I started thinking about it again.
It’s not something we have to deal with ourselves, although we know people who are. Beyond the fact of how weird yet cool, sad yet impressive, scary yet inspiring it is that all Israelis do compulsory army service while their Jewish American counterparts are partying on campus, it was something else entirely that moved me. What moved me was witnessing the intersection of the 2000 year old religion of Judaism with the perhaps even more ancient and yet now modern 3000 year old nationality of Israel. The collective need to express this modern Israeli experience in a Jewish prayer is at the heart of what it means to be both a Jew and an Israeli. Because prayer is our language.
The text is below and it speaks for itself.
