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Miranda
Cagan Fatolitis, a
lifelong resident of Washington Heights,made
her first appearance on the bima at six months, when
her community and family gathered for her naming ceremony. Since then, she
has grown up surrounded by friends and teachers from Hebrew Tabernacle and
Beth Am. Miranda started Hebrew School in the Alef
class, and has progressed to her current status as a
student in Kita Vav. She
has taken part in services and events at the synagogue her whole life. As
part of her mitzvah project, Miranda
worked on “MendelSongs:
Story of a Neighborhood,” a production held at the Tabernacle in November.
She is the Assistant and “Queen
of Homework” for the Hebrew School’s Kita Gimmel.
This
year, Miranda’s geographic parameters have widened. After spending seven
years at PS/IS 187 four blocks away from both home and shul,
Miranda became a 7th grader at Hunter College High School. She is an avid
frequenter at the school’s Film Club and is on the Publicity Committee of the
Term Council. She will be attending her third summer at Eisner Camp, one of
her favorite places on the planet. Miranda is a prolific reader and singer
who makes her father deliriously happy by singing
along when he plays guitar.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
My Torah
portion is Bechukotai, which is the last parshah of Leviticus. It deals with various blessings and
curses. But it was the first few verses which caught my eye: verses 3-6: “3If
you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments so as to carry them out, 4I
shall give you rains in their season, so that the land will yield its produce
and the trees of the field will bear their fruit. 5Indeed, your
threshing will last for you until grape gathering, and grape gathering will
last until sowing time You will thus eat your food to the full and live
securely in your land. 6I shall also grant peace in the land, so
that you may lie down with no one making you tremble. I shall also eliminate harmful
beasts from the land, and no sword will pass through your land.”
Rashi said about this verse “Perhaps you
will say: Behold food and behold drink; but if there is no peace, there is
nothing! The verse says after all this: ‘I will grant peace in the land.’
From here [we learn] that peace is equal to all [other blessings], and [so
too] it says: ‘He makes peace and creates all.’” Peace, Rashi
believes, is the core of all gifts, and I agree. In fact, I find it to be the
most important part of this collection of verses. When we are given material
things, we tend to lose sight of what is important. As the old joke goes,
“Look out the window, and you see the whole world. Spray it with a little
silver, and you only see yourself.”
Peace should be considered the gift
that keeps on giving. It stems from kindness and dedication, and leads to
more kindness. It, alone, creates the conditions under which everything else
can be enjoyed…family, friends, knowledge.
I stated that I believed peace to be the
most important part. However, it is notable that it is included in this list
of material objects. This can cause the more capitalist-minded among us to
say that peace is only as important
as the material objects in life. But I say without peace how can you enjoy
anything?
Peace, the antithesis of war, leads
to compassion and understanding. Compassion and understanding lead to peace. The
question is why is something so important put here, where it might not be
remembered? Maybe God had an off day and forgot to put it somewhere
important. Maybe God was just too new at being a god. Maybe it was a mistake
from the scribe. Or, maybe (so I believe), it was put in as a reminder that
despite everything we will be receiving that will benefit us in the short
term, we rely on peace to carry the Jews—and all people—through the generations.
It is said that “no sword will pass
through your land”. There will be an utter lack of the merest idea of war,
whether in object, thought, or deed. Even a sword, which can also be viewed as
a mere implement, will not be tolerated. It’s all about peace. Coexistence.
As I stated earlier, Rashi said that without peace, everything is nothing. We have
much war in this world. Together, we can do something. One of the most
important parts of peace is forgiveness, which is an underlying theme in this
portion. Forgiveness will lead to peace in the most straightforward way
possible: it decreases conflict by creating compassion. However, peace is
meaningless without its acknowledgement. People focus only on the bad things in their
lives, and not the good. These verses focus on some of the GOOD things that
can happen to us. It might be time to accept the good things.
In conclusion, I would like to
thank the many amazing people who helped me to the point I’m at today; Sandy
Horowitz, my b’not mitzvah tutor, my Kitah Zayin friends, Kitah Gimmel, Connie Heymann, Shelly Koy, Rabbi Gale,
Cantorial student Michelle Rubell,
my HCHS friends, and my parents. One last thing:
Congratulations Ruthie!
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