Originally published in the Jewish Journal · Table for Five
Erev Shabbat, Gaza, 12/22/23 – The sun seems small and distant. It is about to disappear over the scalloped silhouette of army tents. The sky is smeared by dun haze with a hint of dried blood. A hundred Israeli soldiers have taken time from battle to dance and sing. Some are wearing kippas and tallises. They are also in uniform, rifles slung over their shoulders. Their joy has a triumphal energy, though their war is perilous and its outcome far from certain.
They’re singing a verse from Psalms 29:
God’s voice splits flames of fire
God’s voice shakes the wilds;
God shakes the wilds of Kadesh
God’s voice makes the cows calve
and strips the forest
And in His palace
All speak His glory.
They’re only about fifty miles north of where the Israelites fleeing Egypt camped 3335 years ago in the same wilderness, Kadesh, scene of another great trial. Their song, so apt, folds Jewish history in on itself. Jews have awoken, again, to their task, their destiny.
Have we ever had to go to more extremes to thwart evil? An entire civilization seeks to erase us and the Shabbat we’ve given to the world. The evil, knowing us better than we sometimes know ourselves, announced its intention when it barbarized us on a very holy Shabbat. It also roused the thundering voice of God to shake the wilderness.
Our verse commands us to guard the Shabbat. These warriors give it new meaning.
