D’var Israel – September 17 2016

Noga’s D’var Israel

Hello everyone, I wanted to talk today about a very important man in Israel.

A man that is having health issues lately and that everyone in Israel is praying for his recovery, and as I’ve heard many people are worried about him here as well. By now you can all probably tell that I’m talking about Shimon Peres the former president of Israel.

When I heard for the first time that he was evacuated to the hospital my stomach started hurting and I got really upset without actually understanding why. I do not know him or any of his family members personally. I suddenly realized how much he is respected and appreciated and especially what a big part of the israeli society he is.

So after a hard week trying to explain to everyone why this touches me so much I put some dots together that I would like to share with everyone here today.

First of all I truly believe, that this one individual represents all the great values that my entire surrounding and I, as Israeli kids grew up on. There are both ugly and pretty sides to our country but in my eyes Shimon Peres, among being a symbol of our country, a leader, a president and a Prime-minister is a symbol of everything that is good.

I am not going to speak about all the great things that he has established as a Politician because that’s a never ending list that I probably wasn’t even alive for most of.

I will tell you why I find him so special. In my eyes he represents the love, warmth and caring inside the Israeli community. He represents selfless acts and the bright Israeli mind.

He is a man of peace and understanding, he is the best kind of Israeli there is, a true “tzabar” (if anyone knows what that means). (A Tzabar is from the word Tzabra – which means cactus; an affectionate name for Israelis)  He belongs to my grandparents generation, the generation that built our country with their bare hands and handed it to us on a silver platter. A generation that has lived through the entire Israeli history only to teach us about it and about all these big ideals and values of the country that we need to live up to. Values of goodwill and faithfulness. he has seen it all- guiding the entire country, helping us choose right from wrong.

The Israeli population is in a process of changing and growing, and as it’s growing (and of course with all the distractions we have there) I feel that sometimes we forget or lose touch of where we came from, who we owe everything we have to, and what we need to pass on. That is why Shimon Peres means that much to me- all these big words and values that I’ve said before- he- and they are what represent the best side of israel in my eyes, a side that we need to work hard everyday to keep.

I want to finish by saying that I came here to do a shlichut, and I didn’t just pass this time talking about a man that probably most of you have the same knowledge of him as I do. The way I see it, I’m here to bring the “Israeli part of me” to this  community and show Israel from my point of view.

I feel that he is one of the few most authentic-real old school Israelis, and what he brought to our country, what he represents is exactly what I would like to pass on.

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