Rabbi Karen Bender Reflects on Mission to Israel

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Rabbi Karen Bender Reflects on Mission to Israel

Apr 30, 2024

Rabbi Karen Bender, Chief Mission Officer of Los Angeles Jewish Health, recently returned from a mission to Israel. She was there to express solidarity with our Israeli brothers and sisters, demonstrate to them that they are not alone but rather that our hearts beat as one, bear witness to the massacres, lift up soldiers and family members of hostages, and volunteer by way of farming. Rabbi Bender describes that being there was in some ways like a shiva visit and in other ways like bikkur cholim, visiting the sick. In the Talmud the rabbis state that when you visit someone who is ill, you remove 1/60 of their suffering. Rabbi Bender hopes and prays she took away some of the Israelis' suffering by piercing their feelings of isolation, despair and grief.

On the flight home she wrote the following poem. Her reference to the strand of turquoise alludes to an ancient Jewish practice of adding a blueish strand to the tzitzit fringes of the prayer shawl. In those days, one would know that the sun had risen enough to say the morning Shma prayer if there was enough natural light to see the difference between the blue and white strand and the blue and white in the sky.

The Diameter of the Massacres*
by Karen Bender - April 2024

The diameter of the massacres
was the length of Israel
and the depth of the universe.
It stretched to every continent,
college campuses and social media
It spread information and disinformation
Twisting and distorting morality
And redefining madness
It wreaked havoc and wrecked lives
In Israel and Gaza
In kitchens and living rooms
In bedrooms and porches
In souls and hearts.

The diameter of the visit
was the length of Israel
the distance to California
and everyone and everywhere
we will speak of it.
The mission stretched
our compassion and minds
and challenged our faith
in human nature.
It struck us with awe
in every cell of our being
as we saw the resiliency of our people
and as we strove together to answer
the unspoken question:
Where shall we place all the pain?
We were messengers and witnesses,
representatives with wishes to help
and we did and we will.

The diameter of the hugs
is the length of an Israeli flag
and the width of a tallit large enough
to enwrap every Israeli who hurts right now
and therefore every Israeli
with the comfort of our love
and with a strand of techelet turquoise
in the tzitzit to remind us all that
the morning will come and
we will say the Shma someday with one voice.

*A reprise of Yehudah Amichai’s poem, “The Diameter of the Bomb”

Rabbi Karen Bender placing letters from residents in the Western Wall
Letters from residents put in the Western Wall
Sample letter given to Israeli soldiers

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