Closing Message - Rabbanit Bracha
View video version here.
There are many different words we can use to describe a friend:
Comrade, colleague, buddy.
Each word describes a slightly different kind of relationship.
In Hebrew as well, there are different words for friend: chaver, rei’a, ach.
One word for friend in Hebrew gives us a window into what friendship really means. That word is yedid.
The word yedid is spelled yud-daled-yud-daled. These four letters can be read as two words: yad-yad, denoting “hand-in-hand” or perhaps, one hand reaching out to another.
This coming Shabbat, also the seventh day of Pesach, we will read about God saving the Israelites from the hands of the Egyptians by splitting the Yam Suf, the Reed Sea, and bringing them safely across. In the last verse before the Song of the Sea, Shirat Hayam, this phrase appears [Ex 14:31]:
וַיַּרְא יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶת-הַיָּד הַגְּדֹלָה אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה ה' בְּמִצְרַיִם
And Israel saw the great hand of God, which was used against the Egyptians.
In Egypt, Pharaoh’s magicians saw God’s powerful, pointing finger אֶצְבַּע אֶלוֹקִים הִיא raining plagues down upon them. When the Egyptian army crossed the Yam Suf, they felt the great hand of God bringing the waters back together as they disappeared underneath.
At the same moment, for the Israelites, God’s hand was outstretched in caring and in friendship; a helping hand just when it was needed most.
God models for us what it means to be a true yedid and it is so heartwarming to see how our community mirrors that same degree of friendship and care. Delivering Shabbat meals week after week, shopping and running errands for others, calling those who are alone, stepping up to cover leyning for our many tefillot, scouring the Internet to reserve vaccine appointments for others, and posting to a truly amazing assortment of WhatsApp groups where one barely has time to send a request before someone else steps in with an answer or a solution.
May we continue to offer our hands in friendship and on other occasions may we feel the comfort of supporting hands from our yedidim - our friends.
Reminder to all to take good care of ourselves and each other. Try to do something specific today that strengthens you, and something else that strengthens someone else.
