A look at a Jewish perspective on difficult times.

Sometimes small actions can teach about much bigger issues. When Bibi Netanyahu was recently at the White House, he gifted President Trump an unusual item. I would imagine that it’s not easy to find a present for the man who has everything. He strictly does not drink so a fine bottle of wine from the Golan would be useless. He is blessed with money, health and a loving family. What can you give him or the U.S. that would have some meaning? Bibi’s choice was a mezuzah. A mezuzah is a piece of parchment with two portions from the Torah written on it. The parchment is generally placed in a container which is then attached to a doorway entrance. If you ever go visit your Jewish friends, you might well see a little box on the right side of the entryway. One of the most moving moments I had in Germany was approaching my father’s former home in Forchheim and seeing on the doorpost the still visible place where the mezuzah had once stood 50 years earlier.

I doubt that President Trump needs a mezuzah, though I have heard that there is one on the entrance to the White House. His Jewish daughter no doubt has her own and his Jewish advisors also can take care of themselves. The unique feature of this mezuzah was its case: it was fashioned from the metal remains of a missile fired by Iran at Israel into the shape of a B-2 bomber. Let’s think about it for a moment. The metal itself is worthless. I have heard that they are still selling pieces of the Battleship Tirpitz, the sister ship of the Bismarck. But the metal itself has no special value. The original missile’s purpose was to kill as many Jews as possible. Only a small percentage of the Iranian projectiles were apparently fired towards military or governmental targets. Most of the warheads that hit did so in residential areas. So what we have here is a portion of a device meant to kill Jews converted into a portion of a commandment to place a mezuzah on the right side of a Jew’s doorway. And there is much to learn from this simple conversion.

There was a story from years ago when NASA was looking at the feasibility of going to Mars. One of the speakers brought up the point that it might take two or more generations of astronauts to go to Mars, work there and return. “How can we be certain that the future generations will be dedicated to the mission as the original astronauts?” Someone in the audience blurted out, “Ask the Jews. Somehow they know how to pass things on for thousands of years.” Jewish history is pocked with pogroms, forced expulsions (including the 800,00 thrown out of Arab countries after the establishment of the state of Israel), economic boycotts, threats of extermination, and internal tensions. So how have the Jews kept marching on? The Torah and its commandments are the central feature of Jewish survival for several thousand years. One feature of Jewish (but not solely Jewish) life is to take the bad and turn it into something good. Lemons to lemonade.

When I met one of our lawyers after the bombing in which we were wounded, he told me about some of his clients. Some who had lost loved ones had set up summer camps for children who had lost siblings. Others had established scholarships. Still others had set up libraries in the name of those murdered. It seemed like every person either tried to find or create a silver lining for horrific losses or experiences. I recently saw Yarden Bibas hold a Torah scroll written and dedicated to his murdered wife and children. While there are many in the Christian West who also have worked to turn tragedy into something good, this approach does not seem to work with Muslims. The guy who sent the bomber in our attack told The New York Times that he did so as revenge because Israel had killed his brother. It has always been the custom at Palestinian funerals that the mourners demand blood and vengeance. They use loss and destruction to demand revenge. That’s why Gaza looks like a nuclear bomb fell on a concrete factory.

When Bibi gave the president of the United States the mezuzah, the obvious symbolism was the success of the B-2 attack on Iran. But a piece of metal meant to kill Jewish citizens was converted into a decorative cover for a parchment with words of Torah. And this has been the spirit of the Jewish people throughout the ages. As I mentioned, this is not only a Jewish trait. There are people who have dedicated their lives to turning personal loss or challenge into a better life for others. But the goal is to take a bad situation and try to find or create something positive out of it.

The above does not mean the process is easy or immediate. People don’t get up from a grave and dedicate a new university building the next day. The process of going from mourning to finding a meaningful remembrance can take years. One rabbi lost his wife and eleven children in the Holocaust. He survived and worked hard to strengthen and encourage other Jews who had emerged from hell. He remarried and eventually moved to Israel where he built a new community and a first-class hospital in the city of Netanya. He never lectured others but led by his personal example of moving forward and rebuilding. One can either remain numb and call it a life, take the Arab approach and demand some type of revenge, or try to convert a horrific life event into something maybe a bit positive.

One can see that Bibi did not give a big speech when he presented the unique gift to the leader of the free world. They both understood the implications of converting a lifeless piece of metal meant to kill a people into a cover for a holy parchment with words given long before there was a destructive Islam bent on destroying Jews everywhere. The British have raised their Iranian threat level for Jewish targets to the highest level possible. This has nothing to do with Israel. Iran and its ilk wish to wipe out Jews, Christians and the West. European leaders should be shipping people back home far faster than they arrive, but they don’t understand the Muslim Brotherhood's program. The B2 mezuzah tells exactly what the score is. For the Europeans, it’s too late. For America, there is still hope.