In a week when we don't read a new Torah section, but rather focus on Passover and the "Haggadah of Your Son," here's a story that is entirely connected between generations: Last Tuesday, seven in the evening, the "Achdut Yisrael" synagogue named after the underground fighters, in central Jerusalem. At the entrance is a very steep staircase, which is already crowded with many people, trying to get inside. "Ask me if I'm excited," Rabbi Benji Levin's voice echoes through the synagogue hall. "Well, of course I'm excited. Otherwise I would speak orally and not write in advance. I'm very excited." Even with the pages in his hand, his voice trembles from time to time. No wonder. This evening marks the 45th anniversary of the passing of his grandfather, Rabbi Aryeh Levin, the famous rabbi of the prisoners and the underground. And today, at the height of the annual memorial event, the grandson is being appointed to the position his grandfather held - rabbi of this synagogue.
When it was built in the 1940s, the place was bustling with life. It wasn't yet named after the underground fighters, it was simply theirs. The Irgun and Lehi members used it as a place of prayer, gathering, and public discussions, as well as a funeral home. Under the ark, behind a few simple planks, a sliq was hidden. "Many prayers were said here with deep intention, in front of the Torah scroll, before a battle or before an unknown mission," the legendary gabbai of the place, the late Irgun fighter Yosef Witelson, said in the past. "The fighters would run up the steep steps and enter the synagogue, just to gain a few minutes of peace. When they fell in mysterious and dangerous actions, and the parents were afraid to sit for them openly, they came here to mourn in secret.".
With the establishment of the state, those who were not in the "Hagana" and the Palmach felt that the mapainika history was repressing them. They found solace here, in the social gatherings and also in the commemorative activities. All the recognition that the establishment did not give them, they received on the walls of the synagogue: Jabotinsky, Feinstein, Barzani and the Altalena martyrs are commemorated here, alongside hundreds of other unknown soldiers. The righteous Jerusalemite Rabbi Aryeh Levin then naturally became their rabbi. After all, he had visited the living worshippers in prison during the Mandate, and he was with those on the wall until the last minutes before going up to the gallows, crying with them and saying together, "Shema Israel.".
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The years passed, the establishment changed, and recognition came. No less than eight streets in Jerusalem are named after worshippers of the synagogue, and 19 of them have been awarded the title of "Beloved of Jerusalem." It's a beautiful legacy, but you'll have to put up with it in the 2000s. What do you do in the 2000s with the synagogue that Yitzhak Shamir and Menachem Begin used to frequent? How do you maintain such a special character, when the members of the fighting family pass on to a world where all is good? The gabbai Witelson would go out into the street to look for the tenth minyan, and sometimes the eighth and ninth. He explained that this was the will that Rabbi Aryeh Levin gave him when he died: to protect the synagogue with all his might.
Then, unexpectedly, the renaissance began. Three students from a bachelor apartment in the Nachlaot neighborhood arrived, lit up, and turned the empty synagogue into a hot scene. "We realized that if we come, we are fulfilling the will of Rabbi Aryeh Levin," recalled one of the three, Arnon Meir, this week. "How can you not come when you are fulfilling his will? But there was something else. We were turned on by the atmosphere, by their stories after the service. Every Saturday morning they set up a table with Shabbat songs and underground songs and recount experiences from the days of the British Mandate that could not be heard anywhere else. We started bringing friends and within a few weeks Wittelsohn was no longer looking for a tenth of a minyan, because there was no longer room there, not even standing room.".
The generational shift between the old secular right and the young religious Zionism is probably not only typical of this synagogue. Now, the young people have also asked for a rabbi, and found the grandson of Rabbi Aryeh, founder of the "Gesher" organization, Rabbi Benji Levin.
The mix at last week's inauguration was unusual: Rabbi Benji Levin's children sit in the front row, young ultra-Orthodox men in hats. Alongside them are veterans of the non-religious underground, and with them more than a hundred young religious Zionists. "The unity of Israel is not just the name of your synagogue," Chief Rabbi David Lau tells them in his welcoming speech. "The unity of Israel is your motto.".
It is doubtful whether the chief rabbi knows that in recent years the synagogue has had another motto: matchmaking. With all due respect to hearing heroic stories about escaping from Acre prison, along the way the place has become a vibrant hub for singles in the sector.
""I accompanied Grandpa here as a child," Rabbi Benji tells the audience in his first speech in office. "And I was always impressed by the names of all the heroes on the walls. Grandpa and those heroes must be happy up there about what's happening here tonight. What did I learn from Grandpa, and what should we all learn? I learned that extremism is not necessarily an expression of holiness. I learned that you don't have to travel far to find spirituality. Spirituality can be found right here next to you, when you look around and ask what I did today to help others. I learned how important it is to find love in your heart for those who make you not want to do it.
""I once asked him what God wants from us and he replied that King David says in the Book of Psalms, 'I will lift up my eyes to the mountains, from where does my help come?' Why is he looking at the mountains? You can look at the stars, at the moon, they are higher. Grandpa said that the moon and the stars are in the sky, but the mountain stands on the ground and rises up. This is what God wants from us. To grow from the ground, from within this world.
""We are approaching Passover. The entire exodus of the Israelites from Egypt begins with the righteous Joseph in the Egyptian prison. Two of Pharaoh's ministers who were thrown into prison arrive there, and he sees on their faces that something is wrong. He asks them: 'Why are your faces sad today?' Then they start telling him dreams, and he interprets them. From there everything begins to progress. In other words, the entire redemption from Egypt begins with one person taking an interest in the well-being of the other. This is how we will bring about redemption, if we take an interest in others. It is very simple and very complicated.
""There is a well-known story about the Baal Shem Tov, who when he wanted to pray would go to a certain place, light a fire and pray a prayer. His student no longer knew how to light the fire, but he remembered the place and the prayer. The next generation of students didn't remember the place and didn't light the fire, but he remembered the prayer. And the next generation didn't know where the place was, didn't know how to light the fire, and didn't remember the prayer, but knew how to tell the story. That's me. I'm not like my grandfather. I just know how to tell the story. Pray for me that I will succeed in my role. That we will know how to appreciate the Torah, appreciate IDF soldiers, appreciate others wherever they are. And one last thing: When you go out and go down the steep stairs, I ask all the young people to give a hand to the elders.".
Jewish statusThe Jewish status: "Behold, I will open your graves and raise you up from your graves with my people and bring you to the land of Israel... and I will put my spirit in you and you will live and I will place you on your own land" (from the Haftarah read on Shabbat)
