Our family used to travel up to the Catskill Mountains to work in a summer camp. Every year part of the journey included buying fireworks.
In those days fireworks were sold in the South in warehouses, and my husband would buy a large selection to use for different parts of the summer program in camp, including July 4 festivities.
I always had a really hard time with this. The idea of transporting fireworks over state lines with a car full of children never seemed like a great idea to me.
When I look back on those halcyon days I remember myself exercising great restraint and not expressing my fears.
Until I read our family chat tonight and learned that I had shared those feelings more than I realized.
My adult (?!?) children were taking about the fireworks that were exploding in their various neighborhoods.
One asked: why was I always afraid when Dad bought the fireworks?
One after another agreed they had anxiety over those fireworks.
One of them asked why do they all have so much anxiety?
At the same moment my husband and I replied.
He wrote: not from me.
I wrote: probably from me.
Our philosophical daughter
then shared:
“It’s genetic. Generations of Jews carrying the weight of the world and the fear of threat on a consistent basis”.
Gulp. I was part of the problem. I had transmitted my fears to the next generation!
In this week’s Torah portion Moshe seems to have a fear too.
After successfully conquering a mighty king called Sichon who did not allow the Jewish nation passage through his country on the way to the land of Israel, Moses is faced with another challenge.
It would be necessary to deal with another king called Og who was also refusing passage through his land.
Gd says to Moses, “Do not fear”.
Why would Moshe be afraid?
He had just successfully dealt with Sichon who was a much more powerful adversary?
The commentator Rashi explains that Moshe was afraid because he thought that Og had a secret weapon.
What was that weapon?
It was actual a metaphysical armor.

Many years before Og had been the messenger to tell our forefather Abraham that his nephew Lot had been captured and needed to be saved. This act was the catalyst for Abraham going to war and redeeming Lot.
This action created a merit for Og because Abraham was then able to save his relative.
(This merit is actually somewhat murky because Og’s intentions were not pure. He really hoped that Abraham would be killed in this war to retrieve his nephew and then, he Og, would be able to take Sarah as his wife.)
From this we learn that an action which results in good even though the intent was nit pure it still carries weight. Even people who help out others without the purest of intentions deserve our thanks.
And this does create a positive merit for the doer.
Og’s action saved a life and this is why Moshe was worried that Og’s merit would protect him against the Jews.
Despite the merit, Moses was able to defeat Og as Gd was on his side.
Miracles take place with Gd at our side.
The 12 days of war with Iran were replete with miracles. When one considers the payload of destructive missiles that rained upon the country it is shocking how few lives were lost. Of course each one lost is a tragedy, but it could’ve been exponentially worse.
More and more is coming to light as people start realizing and thinking about some of what occurred.
A senior engineer who serviced the planes over the 12 days of extended sorties over long distances said all of the engineers were shocked by the fact that the planes required minimal servicing. Despite all that could go wrong there was only a need to do routine maintenance.
The distances traveled were great, every engine and aircraft showed no wear and tear.
In his words “steel doesn’t perform miracles. There are laws of physics, friction, erosion and fatigue. It simply can’t happen.
And yet it did!”
The engineer’s conclusion- a miracle that Gd wrought to insure our success over our enemies.
The miracles occurred in our Torah portion and they continue to occur till today.
Gd told Moshe, do not fear, and that message is being broadcast to us today loud and clear.
Gd will not forsake us, we must not fear.
After my philosophical daughter shared that our fear is genetic, whether it be from the explosions wreaked upon us by our foes, or fireworks which can be scary too, she concluded her remark by saying we are “cycle breaking” working on conquering our fears and relying on Gd, even in the midst of frightening times.
May we continue to strengthen our faith, ourselves and each other to forge forward.
Shabbat Shalom and so much love!