This morning I watched a short video of two young girls, returning home from captivity by Hamas. There was a small crowd waiting. They were cheering, waving Israeli flags, taking photos on their cellphones. There were many excited voices as the girls exited from the car. Then, one woman’s voice rang out clearly. She was saying the Shema.

She didn’t recite the shecheyenu, or say bruchim ha’bayim. She said the Shema.*

More than anything else the Shema is what links us together as Jews. A statement about God and us. It is a reminder, not just that God is, but also that God is in relationship with us. It is six short words in Hebrew, the first two about us, the last four about God. It links us inextricably to one another, as well as to the Divine. It is quintessentially Jewish.

In last week’s Torah portion, our patriarch Jacob lay down with a rock as a pillow, and dreamed about God‘s presence. When he woke, he said, “God was in this place, and I, I did not know it.”

This week’s Torah portion recounts his second nighttime experience of the Divine. He found himself wrestling with “a man” through the night. He asked the man/angel his name, and the man refused to tell him. However, he renamed him Jacob, calling him Yisrael. For the rest of his lifetime, the Torah relates to us that he was sometimes called Jacob, sometimes Israel.

That’s us. Sometimes we have moments of clarity when we know for certain that God is in this place. Wherever that place may be. This morning, God was both in my living room with me, and on that street in Israel with those two young girls.

Sometimes I am just Jennifer. And sometimes I am part of something greater; I am Yisrael.🇮🇱

* Shecheyanu is said when something happens for the first time; “Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Sovereign of all, who has kept us alive, sustained us, and brought us to this day.”

Bruchim ha’bayim are words of welcome. It literally means “blessed are they who came.”

Shema is from Deuteronomy, chapter six: “Listen Israel! The Lord is God the Lord is One.”