We Jews have a funny relationship with memory. Remembering can be deeply grounding – or it can feel utterly drowning.
Throughout the Jewish calendar, we are commanded to remember pivotal moments in our history. Tisha B’Av, Hanukkah, and Purim all anchor us in storytelling. But nowhere is the obligation to remember more heightened than during this season.
It begins with Passover, where we are commanded to tell the story of the exodus. It continues with Holocaust Remembrance Day when the word Zachor (“Remember”) appears everywhere: banners, stickers, social media – a single word capturing the sacred imperative never to forget the horrors that occurred less than a century ago.
Soon after comes Remembrance Day for the Fallen, and immediately afterward, Independence Day. This cycle culminates in Shavuot when we commemorate the revelation at Sinai and reaffirm our acceptance of the covenant with God.
Does all this remembering ground us or drown us? Perhaps it is meant to do a little of both. The vacillation between destruction and redemption, mourning and celebration, forces us to re-experience the past while remaining connected to the future. We are called to look back – but not to remain there. Our task is ultimately to look forward.
A new initiative by Beit Hillel, a rabbinic organization committed to attentive, inclusive leadership, brings this delicate balance of past, present, and future into focus. This year, Beit Hillel has created an illustrated Grace After Meals booklet called For the Good and Gracious Land (available for free download on the Beit Hillel website), incorporating not only the traditional text but also a specially composed Al HaNissim prayer for Israel’s founding.
Al HaNissim – typically recited on Hanukkah and Purim – thanks God for miracles of deliverance. Several years ago, Beit Hillel composed a version to express the miraculous nature of Israel’s rebirth:
“For the miracles, and for the redemption, and for the mighty deeds, and for the deliverances, and for the battles, and for the consolations that You performed for our ancestors in those days at this time.
“In the days of the ingathering of exiles and the beginning of the rebirth of the nation, when Arab nations rose against Your people Israel to kill them and to drive them from Your land...
“But You, in Your great mercy, strengthened their hands and inspired their courage...
“Then, Your children gathered and established the State of Israel in Your land... They established this Independence Day as a day of thanksgiving and praise for the redemption and for the rebirth.”
Beit Hillel's visual art and memory
This year, Beit Hillel’s Al HaNissim is accompanied by vivid, original artwork created by 12 Israeli artists invited to participate in a series of workshops connecting prayer to visual art. The goal, explains Beit Hillel’s director, Shlomit Piamenta, was “to infuse the celebratory outdoor meals across the country with greater meaning” – to bring the blessings of food, land, and history into vibrant color.
The artistic responses are as varied as the land itself.
- Tali Dvir Livnat, an artist and social activist in Jaffa, drew inspiration from the verse “Those who sow shall reap” (Psalm 126). In her piece, Ripples of Light, a cabbage blossoms into a tree, radiating hopeful energy outward.
- Dalia Haddad, reflecting on the blessing “Blessed are You, Lord our God, for the land and for the food,” used flowing inks and loose lines to create a vibrant landscape evoking abundance, life, and the bounty of the Seven Species.
- Yaara Goldberger painted a group of teenagers resting in a field of daisies, gazing at the sky and dreaming – a visual expression of the verse “When God brought back the return to Zion, we were as dreamers.” Her piece captures a dream of security and peace in the Land of Israel.
- In a playful twist, Eden Wolfgur drew Theodor Herzl striking a yoga pose against a backdrop of cherry tomatoes, explaining that namaste symbolizes connection and humility, while the tomatoes represent Israeli agricultural innovation.
- Moshe Shapira, in a far more somber tribute, based his illustration, For the Miracles and for the Might, on the last photograph of his son, Aner Shapira. Aner became known across Israel for his heroism on Oct. 7, when he threw grenades back at terrorists attacking a bomb shelter before being killed.
Using the words “Protected Space” as an acrostic for a line of Al HaNissim, Shapira reflects on the courage and miracles bound up with unbearable personal loss.
“As a bereaved father, I asked myself how I could speak of miracles and might when the pain is so great,” he writes. “Through Aner’s actions, I believe he revealed sublime courage – a salvation and a miracle for his friends.”
This project reminds us that memory must not paralyze us. It must propel us forward.
As we move this week from Remembrance Day – when we risk drowning in sorrow – to Independence Day – when we soar in celebration – we carry both the tears and the triumphs with us.
We remember not to stay frozen in the past but to affirm life and to continue building the dream.
Memory is not only about what was.
It’s about what still can be. ■
The writer is a lecturer of Talmud and Contemporary Halakha at Pardes, Matan, and Midreshet Torah V’Avoda. She recently published her first book, Uncovered: Women’s Roles, Mitzvot and Sexuality in Jewish Law (Urim Publisher).