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Rabbi Joel Lehrfield
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| The Rabbi's Study |
| March, 2003 |
There is sadly, no dearth of remarks on the failure of the Columbia's shuttle reentry and the consequent death of its crew. I think that it will be some time, perhaps years, before we will be able to absorb how the death of these brave astronauts have affected us. Certainly for the Jewish people, the death of Colonel Ilan Ramon, represented not only the loss of a brave man but also a loss of a national symbol. Colonel Ramon, an Israeli fighter pilot, child of Holocaust survivors and a father of four, saw his voyage on the space shuttle as more than a science expedition. He believed that he was on a higher mission to serve "as an ambassador, representing all Jews and Israelis." It was a noble goal for a noble man. Would all Jews see themselves as ambassadors to the worlds in which they participate? As Colonel Ramon has showed us, to be an ambassador for the Jewish people does not require that he be a completely observant Jew; to bring honor to G-d's name and to the people He chose does not demand absolute punctiliousness to all of Hashem's commandments. What it does demand is a sense of what we are, from where we came, a deep understanding of the people of whom we are a part, and a visceral recognition of a connection to the Divine, as evidenced in that special gift that we received from Hashem, the Torah. As all of you know by now, Colonel Ramon was not religiously observant. Yet this modest man reflected a nobleness of character, an innate dignity of what it means to be a Jew. He responded to his mission professionally, realizing that at the same time, he was representing more than the hopes and ambitions of a technocrat. He was representing Jews and Israelis who are the product of millennial long aspirations. He therefore requested kosher food (though it seems that previous Jewish astronauts did not consider this a worthwhile concern) on his sixteen day flight, because in that way, he said "I can show respect for Jewish traditions." He had an intuitive sense that a key factor in the attainment of Jewish unity is to show respect for the traditions that have carried us forward for the past three and a half millennia. He knew, as every ambassador of the Jewish people should know, you and me alike, that Torah tradition is an integral part of the luggage that Jews must carry with them. Ramon's space luggage included a tiny Torah scroll and a microfiche of the entire Tanach. The Torah scroll had been given him by a boy who received it on the occasion of his Bar Mitzvah in the notorious Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, from the Rabbi of Amsterdam over 60 years ago. This Bar Mitzvah boy of over 60 years ago, later became the chief scientist and author of the experiments on the desertification - the expansion and contraction of the desert milieu. It was he, Ramon's scientific superior, who gave the Torah scroll to Ramon. Part of his space luggage included a copy of a picture of the earth as seen from the moon, drawn by Peter Ginz, a 14 year old Jewish Czechoslovakian boy in Theresienstadt. The drawing depicts the earth as Peter imagined it would be if he would be looking at the earth from the moon. It was a reminder that the bearing of G-d's message carries with it an awesome responsibility that has often forced us to pay a terrible price. But it was also a reminder to the world that though many innumerable hopes died in the Holocaust, some lived on in the likes of Ilan Ramon, his wife and his children. His mother and grandmother survived the Auschwitz concentration camp, though Peter Ginz, the 14 year old artist, did not and their experiences were forever part of Ilan's life and our peoples. It was a reminder to all Jews as Ramon said "who see their hopes that had died in the Holocaust as living on through me. They see that despite the horrors we have endured, we are going forward." As a Jew, as a representative of the Jewish people, he recited Kiddush on Friday night. As a Jew, he said Shema Yisrael as the space shuttle orbited over Jerusalem. As a Jew, he carried the national flag and the dreams and hopes of the State of Israel and the Jewish people; and as a Jew, he told Prime Minister Sharon, from his perch in the sky, "I think it is very, very important to preserve our historical tradition and I mean historical and religious traditions." That's what it takes to be a Jewish ambassador at the very least - the preservation and respect to our historical and religious traditions (which is why I find it so self hating when Jewish organizations can hold fetes and feasts with no concern for Jewish sensitivity). I write these less than fitting words on Tuesday, February 11, 2003, the tenth of Adar Rishon, 5763. the day on which Colonel Ilan Ramon's remains are being interred in Israel, and I pray, along with our entire people, that Hashem grant to his wife, Rona, and his children, Assaf, Tal, Yiftach and Noa and his parents, a measure of consolation. As was noted in the Israeli press, we hope and pray that his family take comfort in the fact that in his life, their Ilan saved both the life and spirit of his country and his people. |
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