I would like to talk to you this morning about two important ideas in our tradition: strength and peace; oz v’shalom. In the Bible, Psalm 29 ends with the verse: H’ oz l’amo yiten; H’ yevarech et amo vashalom. “God will give strength to his people; God will bless his people with peace.” So we might ask, what is the relationship between strength and peace?
It’s interesting when we think about our lives and the memories of seemingly mundane things that stick with us. Over the past few months, I have thought of one memory in particular when I was in 7th grade and started to be more tuned in to news. It was 1974, the year after the Yom Kippur war, and I had begun to follow as well as I could the tensions on the borders between Israel and her neighbors. Every strike or harm against Israel affected me. And being a budding young activist who wanted to make a difference, I decided to write petitions against actions the Arab countries were taking against Israel, and to get my classmates to sign them.
Look around you for a moment. There are people in our community from young children to elders approaching their 100th year. What a miracle that all these generations are here together, celebrating our 3000-year-old tradition on this New Year. L’Dor vador, from generation to generation.” Halleluya.
I want to talk about this idea of l’dor vador today. For if there is one phrase from our liturgy that speaks to people universally, it is that phrase—L’dor vador.