Author: אות ומופת - אורנה גרינמן

There is another way our nation commemorates her widowhood. Tonight starts Israel’s Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Acts of Terror. Since the first “olim” (immigrants) started coming back to Zion, through the establishment of the modern state of Israel in 1948 and till this day, 23,447 soldiers and civilians lost their lives in wars or acts of terror.

Just like on Holocaust Memorial Day, on this day the nation will once again cease all its doings for a moment of silence as the sirens will go off. The home maker by her sink, the driver on the road, even the prime minister will cease his important work – and all will stand in silence. Ceremonies will be conducted in military cemeteries throughout the land.

“You have turned my mourning into dancing. You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness,” sings David. And Israel can join these lines, since the moment memorial day will be over, we will begin the celebration of our Independence Day.

And so, in one very busy and emotion filled week, Israel will address its widowhood and orphanhood, her mourning, but also her victory and her rising from the ashes. From the cross to the resurrection.

Not an easy transition. How do you swiftly turn from a day of mourning to a time of rejoicing?

How could the holocaust survivors, who suffered years of hunger and abuse, make it to the Land of their fathers and immediately join the forces to fight for our independence? How were they even able to start new families? Or express love? And choose life?

I often think about life in the camps. What would I have done if…? Why did the prisoners not run towards the fence, knowing they’d be shot or electrocuted, yet at least they would finally know rest? What caused them to hold on to life, day in and day out, when they had no idea, none what so ever, if they will ever leave those camps?

Every year, as we go through this transition from mourning to dancing, our people are given an opportunity to see the spiritual parallel: for two thousand years we were orphans and widows, with no one to manage us, let’s not forget that. But let us also lift our eyes to the future, to the day in which white robes of linen will replace the black mourning clothes we’ve been wearing for generations.

I invite you to pray for us accordingly: that we will rise from our widowhood, that we will recognize the existence of a loving husband, reaching his hand out to us. A God who gave us to the hands of vicious enemies because we have not heeded His voice, yet now is fulfilling the final part of His covenant with us, inviting us to enter His home as a bride enters the home of her husband.

The majority of the people of Israel do not even speak in these kind of terms and do not recognize the real reason for the sword and exile that have come upon us. Pray for our hearts to be softened, that we would recognize the fatherhood of God, and that we will realize He is our Husband. And a loving one indeed.

Once a year, about two weeks after the Passover Seder, Israel commemorates two huge events, that transformed her modern history.

The holocaust is the first one. Not that we ever forget it throughout the year, but this one day is fully dedicated to the memory of those who were murdered, and the unfathomable torture of those who survived.

It starts on the eve of the 27th day of Nissan. All media is busy with the Holocaust; no other movies or shows are broadcasted, no cinemas or restaurants are open. An entire country mourns.

On the following morning, at 10am, a siren is sounded all over the country. Everybody stops whatever it is they are doing at that moment, and stand still for two minutes.

What you see in the above picture is not the result of an accident. The siren went off, and the drivers simply pulled over, got out of their cars, and in silence expressed their feelings regarding something that words cannot describe anyhow.

Some Numbers According to the Central Bureau of Statistics (as of April 2015):

♦ About 189,000 Holocaust survivors live in Israel. 60% are women.
♦ 45,000 of them live below the poverty line. Almost all of them struggle with severe loneliness
♦ About 1,200 die each month. With every passing month, however, this number grows for obvious reasons.
♦ Their average age is 84.

The Holocaust was the most severe form of punishment God had brought upon our nation in modern history. It was not the first time a decree has been issued to annihilate our name from among the nations. Psalm 83 describes it well, providing a long list of the nations that had that in mind in Biblical days. The book of Esther is yet another example of that desire. Hitler did not come up with something new. The only thing new was his loathsome method.

Living among us today, we still have some of those who miraculously survived this scheme. Each one of them is an amazing testimony to God’s promise to revive us from ashes.

Remember Rachel? Well, I now have her permission to share her real name – Rebecca. She is one of them. Against all odds she survived, and in the short clip bellow she shares about one of those moments, in which she looked death in the eye. (For the non-Hebrew speakers among you, our apologies. Right now the clip is in Hebrew only. We are working on the English subtitles which should be ready in a week or so, but we did not want to wait to share this beautiful clip. As soon as we have the revised clip, we will upload it and notify you).

 https://vimeo.com/165013726

Rebecca is an artist. The picture below shows the footprints left by those who were burnt in the flames. Some did not leave anything behind, except those prints.

You can read more about our work among holocaust survivors at Restoring the brokenness of holocaust survivors.

But this day of mourning is not the end of the story. A week later Israel stands still once more. Read part 2 of this post to learn more about it.

The Jewish nation is preparing for the coming holiday, Passover. On Friday evening, most Jewish families will sit around festive tables, and read the story of the Exodus. Parts of it will be sang, we will play some games with the kids, and eat for what seems like forever. We will also recall the ten plagues that God had brought upon the Egyptians, beginning with the very first one – Blood.

Most Jewish housewives go through a thorough cleaning of every corner in their homes in preparation for this high holiday. Drawers, piles of things long forgotten and untouched for months, everything is dusted and organized. Some joke and say that this holiday is to commemorate our freedom from slavery, only so that we can be in bondage again, this time to cleaning.

But what about our hearts? How can we remove old stains and hidden dust from our hearts? The Bible teaches that the cleansing of our hearts can be done only with blood. Interesting. Ask any housewife. She will clearly tell you that blood only stains. Moreover, blood stains are almost the hardest to remove from any fabric.

But God’s logic works so differently. No matter what contaminated your heart, memory or imagination through the years, it can be cleaned, redeemed and purified. And only through blood. No bleach required.

All it takes is to apply it to the wound or memory or negative feeling. Similar to what the Israelites did when they smeared blood of a lamb on the doorposts of their houses before they left the land of slavery.

How do you smear that blood today, on the doorposts of your hurting heart? I do it through repentance and forgiveness. I simply listen to His knocks on closed doors of my heart, and open them. I invite Him to sit as Lord over anything that bothers me, whether it be something in my circumstances, feelings, or thoughts. I take an imaginary piece of hyssop, and spread His blood (by faith) over anything in me that cries out for freedom from slavery.

So as a whole nation prepares for the traditional meal, you can pray for our hearts to be cleansed as well, not just our homes. Pray that we will understand who the real Lamb is, and how powerful His blood is. Though history made us think His blood contaminated us, the truth is it is what we actually need in order to stand clean.

Is the opposite of a widow a married woman? I used to think so. Changed my mind. I now believe that the opposite of a widow is a bride.

One wears black, the other white. One mourns the loss of her relationship, the other looks up to a future and a forming relationship, and is full of excitement. Ashes versus crown or wreath. And so on.

Israel is a widow (for more on that go into Israel, a widow?), but that’s only a temporary status. She will not remain a widow forever (Isa. 54:4). Israel is not a widow because she lacks a Husband, but because she does not acknowledge Him as such. As of now, He is hiding from her a certain part of His character.

This widow is being restored from her mourning, and begins to replace her ashes with a beautiful wreath. She is turning into a bride, and gradually learns to recognize her Husband as the lover of her soul, and not as her greatest enemy. It is a fascinating process, tied directly to the Messianic Body in Israel today, and to everything else our nation is going through.

But what practically turns a widow into a bride? How can you, as Ruth, pray for this widow, whom most of her children are not even aware of this status and the process we are going through as a nation?

I’ve spent the past weekend with five young Messianic brides. This was the launching event of a new project we added to our ministry. It is called “Libech,” meaning Your Heart. Dana and I taught them how to listen to God through their negative feelings, thoughts and circumstances. But as they were working on their own hearts, I was also listening to what it is that they are concerned with; what stands before their eyes as they choose one decoration or another, think about the vow they are about to take, the covenant they are about to enter in; and what is in the heart of a bride-to-be that sometimes hinders her from focusing on that which she so desires to focus on?

All brides are looking forward to the future, to a marvelous day of celebration and to all that follows. Any spare moment our precious participants had during the Libech weekend, was dedicated to talk about preparations for the Big Day.

But in the midst of all the excitement there were many concerns and questions, stormy emotions and a past that needed to be moved out of the way. What do you do with that past? Suppress it? Ignore it? Pretend it doesn’t exist?

Dana and I taught them to recognize God’s Hand in these questions, how to manage them, clear them out of the way, and how to invite Him into every emotion, thought or fact that robs their energy, joy and patience.

It has given me many images and enriched my terminology in praying for Israel. How can you pray for her to rise from her widowhood? Here are some points, that may inspire you as you pray for us:

1. Israel needs to acknowledge her status as a widow, as a nation that does not lean on God, that lives in a spiritual ruin. You can pray for that revelation. The secular Jews in Israel couldn’t care less about God, and they are the majority. The average feeling of secular Jews is either one of indifference about our future as a nation, or a deep mourning over our present situation. Either way. God is not even in the picture. He is a part of our history, but most of us cannot see Him as the solution to our present huge problems, let alone the future.
2. Many Israelis carry a sense of heaviness and many emotions because of our past and present wounds. We hold a lot against all those nations who trampled over us throughout history, and those we hurt today and who hurt us back. If a nation has a heart, than the Israeli heart is broken, shuttered, disillusioned. Bitter. We are a modern Naomi, who could use a Ruth to bring all these feelings that we have to the feet of the Redeemer.
3. When we are in trouble, we tend to lean on the Arm of our Flesh (our wisdom, our army), and not to seek the lover of our soul, who has a higher plan for us and great promises to fulfill.

The evening before I started the seminar – we took time to prepare our hearts and spirits. No, we are not sleeping here. This is a sweet and sincere group of young men and women, with a right spirit and open hearts.

We spent 4 or 5 hours studying the Word together and worshiping. What a refreshing experience!

Marina came to Chisinau from Germany about ten years ago. God sent her to care for the “lost children of Moldova.” Apparently, Moldova is one of the poorest countries in Europe. Many children are abandoned here by their parents, who leave the country in search of jobs elsewhere. Sadly, at times they choose to establish brand new families and do not even return for the children they left there.

Marina traveled to various villages in her van with games for the children, and brought them some hope and joy.

The responses to the forgiveness seminar were heartwarming. Some of the people in attendance were so broken. The range of what they can do within the law is limited, even when extreme abuse is involved. At times forgiveness is the only way out of the horrors, and they truly did embrace it gladly and wholeheartedly. I am waiting to hear some reports, and will gladly share them with you later on.

Visiting Chisinau stirred within me emotions I wasn’t quite expecting. I was so deeply touched. Almost everything around seemed to be symbolic.

The visit opened up a quest in me to try and find some more information about my mother’s side of the family. It is annoying to realize just how little we know about my grandmother. So much has been lost over the years, so many stories that no one took the time to sit and write down and are now lost forever. Something to think about for the future.

So on the first day in Chisinau I visited the Jewish cemetery, hoping to see some commemoration of the atrocities done there against the Jews in 1903. That cemetery has been totally demolished and is now covered with beautiful spring flowers.

The only mention is this one solitary monument, commemorating the Chisinau pogrom of 1903 in which 49 Jews were murdered. My great-grandfather was among them.

Prior to the war, the Jewish population in Chisinau was apparently quite big and thriving. It was, after all, the capital of what was then known as Basarabia, or today, Moldova.

The Jewish present cemetery is in such a sad state of neglect and disarray. Apparently, the authorities do not take any responsibility for maintaining it. The families of those who are buried are supposed to do it. But most of them left, thank God, and now live in Israel. So the tombstones mostly lie desecrate and broken.

In the cemetery stands this beautiful synagogue, neglected, broken, filthy. I assume the Rabbi stood on this very platform while preaching.

I came to Chisinau to teach about forgiveness; the neglect and desolation I saw gave new meaning for my personal need to forgive, not only for the past, but also the present.

April 1903. Kishinov (Chisinau), back than – a part of Romania. The “Christians” in the city ad just finished their Russian Easter masses in the local churches, flooded the streets, and slaughtered the Jews. 700 Jewish homes were robbed, nearly 600 Jews wounded, 49 slaughtered. Babies were torn to pieces by a blood thirsty and enraged throng.

My grandmother’s family (here with me as a baby) was among them. Her father was murdered. She was only 3 years old.

The local police did not intervene during the first three days. But for the international media and especially for the young Zionist movement, this pogrom was a turning point in planning a solution for the Jews – establishing a land of their own.

Nearly two years ago I flew to Germany, for the first time in my life, and developed the strangest skin reaction, like a burn all over my body. It was painful and took weeks to recover. It also took me a while to realize this is a physical expression of an emotional state. That it was God’s way to show me how much I hold against the Germans, because of the persecution they inflicted on my family from my father’s side.