Junior Tamar Abrahami Reads A Prayer for the IDF

On Thursday morning, we held a tekes (ceremony), for the 8th-12th grade, to honor and remember Shimon Peres z”l. The ceremony included speeches by faculty, videos, student readings of Shimon Peres’ own speeches, prayers for the State of Israel, and a dvar torah from Mr. Carmi.

You can access a short video on the life of Shimon Peres by clicking here and a longer one by clicking here. Both are from CNN. You can also access a funny video about him searching for a new job after his retirement from being President by clicking here.

Below is Mr. Carmi’s Dvar Torah from this morning:

In the Jewish tradition when we mention the name of a dead person we add two letters after his or her name,  ZL. These letters are the initials of the hebrew words Zichrono li-vracha, “may his memory be a blessing” or other times translated “of blessed memory.”

What does it mean to turn the memory of a person into a blessing?

What does it mean to turn the memory of Shimon Peres into a blessing?

What does this have to do with the High Holidays and the coming new year?

In the the Torah and in the High Holiday liturgy we come across the idea that we as Jews are connected across generations. You are familiar with this idea from the daily liturgy where we say: Le-dor va-dor nagid godlecha. From one generation to another generation we will speak about God’s greatness.

The theme of the High Holidays is judgement. We are praying together to be granted another year of life. In this situation we need someone who will speak on our behalf, a defense attorney who has clout with the Judge who can tip the balance in our favour.

Who can do that? Our ancestors.

We learn this from Moshe rabeinu, our teacher. When the people sinned and built the golden calf Moshe had to avert God’s judgment to destroy the people and create a new Jewish people from Moshe’s children.

Moshe  invoked the covenant that God made with Avraham, Yitzhak and Yaakov, and it worked. God forgave the people.

God made a promise to our ancestors that we will thrive and prosper and that ultimately we will live in peace and safety. Despite the shortcoming and small mindedness of every generation since then, it still works. We are here. Am Israel Chai.

We came to call this Zechut avot-the merit of our ancestors, which enables Jewish continuity.

Shimon Peres was a man with a great vision. He wanted our people to live in peace and safety in the land of Israel. He dedicated his life to this cause and earned lots of merit through his actions.

He was the last Israeli political leader who was there from the time before the founding of state of Israel. He lived through Israel’s wars and celebrated its peace accords.

He was there and he did a lot according to the best of his understanding.

Soon the High Holidays will be here and we will pray again עננו, please answer us. We will invoke the memories of all the times our ancestors were answered: The One who answered Abraham on Mount Moriah, answer us;

The One who answered Moshe in the burning bush, answer us; Some will add the One who answered Hanna and Devorah and Sarah,answer us.

Shimon Peres has now joined the list. The one who answered Shimon Peres with peace and security, answer our prayers for peace and security for our people.

May we be worthy to live to become the link in the chain of generations who will eventually manifest the promise you have given our ancestors for a world based on peace, justice and security for the Jewish people and for all the people of this world.

יהי זיכרו ברוך

Mr. Nachshon Carmi