Thrice daily I recite prayers. I open my Hebrew prayer book known as the Siddur and I recite ancient words, attaching myself to generations and centuries of people who walked this earth before me. Every day I call out a prayer for healing for all the members of Ahavas Chesed. This is a fairly recent practice on my part. Just over the past few years have I adopted the act of reciting the names associated with Torah reading and Misheberach- not because it is traditional but because I feel compelled to pray alongside all those whom are in need of support. I pray with all of those who are ill and their families; ‘let their ailments subside and their hope grow -knowing they are loved and cherished in this word and in the reality far beyond this one.’
Some days I pause and I meditate about my own family and its needs. On other occasions I pray in response to the goings-on within Mobile. There are days when my prayers are filled with joy and there are moments when my heart is heavy. Still and all, I don tallis and tefillin every weekday morning and daven Mincha and Maariv and open my Siddur–calling out to the force beyond the universe and whispering to my own inner ear.
This morning, on Martin Luther King Day, while meditating upon the short prayer “Blessed are you God who has made me free” I have been repeatedly lost in thought over my then 14-year-old grandfather who immigrated from Russia in 1910. Speaking Russian and Yiddish he arrived on these shores and learned English just in time to return to France as a G.I. in World War I. Returning to the States he met and married my grandmother and settled in High Point, North Carolina. How could he have known that someday his nine grandchildren would include self-made entrepreneurs, a teacher, a scientist, a psychologist, 2 doctors and a rabbi? How could he have ever anticipated that some day there would be 22 great-grandchildren and four great-great grandchildren all making a mark in this world and on this society because he had been courageous enough to sail alone across the ocean as a (probably terrified) illiterate 14-year-old?
Each of us has a story; a story of arrival amidst fear and celebrations borne out of desperately hard work and a conviction to survive and to contribute. We commemorate the transformation of our America this day - a transformation due to uncountable thousands of people of all skin colors and creeds inspired by Dr. King who in turn was largely inspired by his and our beloved Torah as well as his own venerated Christian Scripture. There is yet work to be done- to persuade people at all levels of our society that when we promote the flourishing of the individual, our nation will flourish and grow; when we strengthen the legal immigrant and the suffering refugee and foster his and her involvement in our country the entirety of our nation will reap the rewards years and generations later.
That is a dream that perhaps my Poppa (Isaac Letevsky- Edward Leyton) might never have been able to put into words or maybe he could have - but now it is my honor to do so.
Shalom, Rabbi Steven Silberman ( HaRav Melech ben HaRav Chayim v’ Temma, neched
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