This Year Especially, It’s Important for Israelis to Remember the ’35’
The 35 bravely defended themselves against the fierce attacks of hundreds of Arabs from neighboring villages. Toward evening on Jan. 16, the supply of ammunition that the 35 carried began to run out. The battle ended with the death of the last of the 35 who, having used up all their ammunition, died defending themselves with rocks in their hands. After the battle, many of the bodies were mutilated by the Arabs beyond recognition.
One of the blessings of living and raising my children in Israel is instilling in them a deep connection to the land and our history here. We live our lives through the prism of a set of landmarks that underscore this daily. Some go back thousands of years including the Western Wall and remains of Jerusalem’s ancient Temples, the burial places of our patriarchs and matriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Leah, Rebecca and Rachel, Joseph and others.
These are frequented on typical tourist itineraries, but there are many more off the beaten path like the “Lamed Hey” which are no less significant. These are landmarks along the thousands of years of Jewish history, underscoring our ancient, and modern, connection to the land, and our future here as well.
There’s something awesome and humbling knowing that the same hills in which we live, with the hot dry summers, cold rainy winters, beautiful landscapes and magnificent sunsets, are the same today as when our ancestors lived here, connecting us deeply to the land, and our history. Of course, the most famous Book documents this all. I just have the privilege to live and raise my family in the front yard.
Growing up in New Jersey, the closest parallel I can think of from an American perspective is visiting the battlefields of the Revolutionary War. I remember vividly as a child, not much younger than my daughter is now, watching a re-enactment of the Battle of Princeton, on the very battlefield in which it took place, as part of the American commemoration of its 200 years of independence in 1976. That was cool and historic indeed.
Yet while the “Lamed Hey” is a re-enactment of something “only” 68 years old, it’s a link in a chain of the thousands of years of connection we have to this land. We are connected here, biblically, historically and in modern times in more ways than can be recounted. We have paid, and continue to pay, a heavy price to return and restore Jewish sovereignty to the land that God gave to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and their descendants, including me and my family.
