It was wonderful to join together with fellow TBEMC members
at the AIPAC Policy Conference in Washinton this past weekend.
I find the most inspiring stories about Israel that emerge
at the conference are the ones that do not make major news headlines.
One story, amongst many, that stand out has a meaningful
connection to the special Maftir reading for today, Shabbat Parah, the Shabbat
when we remember the ritual of the red cow – sacrificed to create a mixture
that had the ability to turn someone ritually pure from their impurity.
Sivan Borowich-Ya’ari is the founder and director of
Innovation: Africa, a not for profit
organization that sets up solar water pumping stations in remote African
villages, now working in 8 African countries – their work has impacted the
lives of 1 million Africans.
They work together with Africans, creating an energy
leadership committee within each village where they work – The engineers work
together with the villagers so that they can take ownership of the
project. Israeli solar technology
enables villages to enjoy fresh water pumped from the ground – They also
provide light and refrigeration to schools and medical clinics enabling
students to learn and medical personnel to safely store and provide
medications.
The fresh spring water pumped into each village gives the
village life, strength, and hope. They
can use the water for irrigating crops and so better feed the people.
Our ancestors used the ashes of the red cow, parah adumah,
and mixed them with spring water – mayim hayim, spring water.
For our ancestors, then, spring water enabled the mixture
that could give people renewed purity and re-integration with the community
after their period of staying apart.
For Africans who’ve benefited from installation of water
pumps, they have a new life, and a new and productive relationship to their
land.
It is heartening, and inspiring to hear of the many ways
that Israeli innovation and commitment to gemilut hasadim have impacted the
lives of so many. We pray that those who
aim their hatred toward Israel will soon see how such a small country reaches
far beyond its own borders to help earthquake victims in Nepal and Mexico city,
victims of natural diasters in Haiti and the Philippines and more.
Other Israeli innovations that we witnessed at this year’s
conference enable better coordination of first responders to emergency
situations, protection of aid workers working in zones where there have been
nuclear accidents, monitoring of crops and agricultural water usage remotely
from devices installed in the soil, methods to maximize and maintain olive and
olive oil production in groves shared by Israelis and Palestinians.
The wise King Solomon could not make sense of the ritual of
the red heifer that somehow can purify the impure while at the same time making
impure the pure.
The nations of the world looked on this ritual and derided
us about it, challenging our faith in this ritual and in our whole system of
beliefs.
We know all too well the ways the nations of the world
single out Israel for condemnation when many of these nations oppress their own
people within their borders, when many of these nations, including the bulk of
those who surround Israel, are dictatorships while Israel is a democracy.
It is time for us to know and tell the stories of how Israel
is serving as an or la’goyim, a light unto the nations of the world, and to
share how the people in Africa, amongst so many other places in the world that
have benfited from Israel’s gemilut hasadim and tech innovations, how they so
appreciate the caring and support even if they might still be a bit puzzled by
our ritual of the red heifer.
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