Before the Gulf War of 1991 began, a local religious leader asked me, "Rabbi, do you have family in Israel?" Family can be broadly defined, but I thought of family as my own relatives. "Yes I have a cousin and her family there, and Rhonda has a first cousin with her husband and their two children."
As the scud missiles shot from Iraq were falling on Tel Aviv a few weeks later, the connection was much more vivid, beyond family. Driving on a Los Angeles freeway as the first reports of the missiles hitting Tel Aviv came in, we drove directly to a nearby Jewish bookstore, where we were going anyway. For some reason, the bookstore offered us the sense of connection we needed at the moment.
Around that time, someone had called the Temple and left a message that was mostly garbled, but sounded like a threat....it was probably not so serious, but it serious enough. Security as a member of the worldwide Jewish community at that time came from connections with family and friends, and also from the concern of anyone who wanted to understand.
Does Israel play a role in your life? Do you have connections to Israel - family, friends, or ties on another level? Have you visited Israel yourself?
