A blessing for “Occy” Lewis.

An article by Elahn    1 Comment

Sunday 25th May. Went back to Jerusalem today to get the balance of my pay from the ABC for the editing work I did a few weeks ago. Once I got my Shekels I took a bus to Yad Vashem on Jerusalems outskirts.

From their website -
Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, is the Jewish people’s memorial to the murdered Six Million and symbolizes the ongoing confrontation with the rupture engendered by the Holocaust. Containing the world’s largest repository of information on the Holocaust, Yad Vashem is a leader in Shoah education, commemoration, research and documentation. More…

Unfortunately you cannot take photos inside the museum but during the 3 hours i was there I only managed to get through perhaps half of it, let alone viewing the Childrens Memorial, the grounds and the Herzl park and tomb. I will have to go back again before coming home to see the rest of it. It is sobering, insightful and educational. World War Two, Hitler, the ghetto uprising, the murder squads, the concentration camps… My knowledge of the Holocaust before seeing only half of this museum was small in comparison to just how big this tragedy was. Anyone visiting Israel must come to see this Memorial to the 6 million Jews who were murdered.

At 5pm the museum closed so I caught a bus back towards the Old City and the Western Wall where I turned my attention to the soon to be birth of my sister Dana’s first baby nicknamed “Occy”, due to his octopus like kicking and moving around in Dana’s belly! He’s due 4th July and I will be back in Melbourne in time for his birth.

Walking into the Western Wall entrance to the Old City at about 6pm, the mostly Orthodox looking crowd busy with animated conversations in Hebrew, English, French, Russian…you name it, the light soft as the sun hung low towards the west.

Entering the Western Wall.

As I walked closer to the wall I was cornered by a Rabbi looking dude with a long white beard asking me if I would put on Tefilin. With a polite no thanks he let me know it wasn’t going to cost anything, it was a Mitzvah. So I humbly accepted and let him tie me up so to speak.

Me with my new friend Rabbi Shamus McIntosh.

Me with the Tefilin on. I swear these Jews like a little bondage before breakfast to kick off the day.

The Rabbi got me to read a blessing while facing the wall, then closing my eyes asked me to picture all the people I care for and love in my life. Picture them one at a time, bathed in light. I was a Jew coming to the holiest place in the world, may I come to live in Israel, find a beautiful wife, get married, have kids, live a long and happy life.

I may not be a religious person, nor believe in god the way others do, but this simple act of wrapping your arm tightly, closing your eyes and making a blessing (hoping your arm doesn’t fall off due to blood loss!) was a greatly spiritual and peaceful moment. Once I couldn’t feel my fingers in my left hand I had the Rabbi unwrap me. I got pen and a piece of paper and wrote the following on it -

Wrapping the note up and taking it to the wall.

Placing the note into the space between the stones along with hundreds, if not thousands of notes left by people asking god to make a blessing, or just asking for something fortuitous in their own lives or of those around them.

Leaving the note in the Western Wall. I couldn’t find my last note from 21 years ago asking for a million dollars.

Other Rabbi dudes bless my note to “Occy”.

Once I had finished saying my own little prayer for Dana, Russell, Occy and our families, I asked the Rabbi who did Tefilin with me to bless Occy also. He said he didn’t need to and that I can do a good deed and dedicate the Mitvah to him myself. This made me think. We do good things in the hope others recognise it and reward us. Is this selfish? Instead, do a good deed and dedicate it to someone else. This to me is unselfish.

So that is my blessing to “Occy”, Dana and Russell. Amen.