I am proud to have joined over 100 members of our shul at Tuesday’s March for Israel on the National Mall in Washington DC. Leading up to the day of the rally there was a lot of talk about the attendance. How many people do you think will show up? The Palestinian march in London had 300,000. Yeah, but there are a billion Muslims in the world and only 16 million Jews. The last mass rally for Israel in 2002 had 100,000 people. No, there were more, the media underestimated. Does the parks department actually count the crowds at these events? Check the internet where you can learn that the parks department does not count or estimate crowd size at DC events. The rally in Washington in 1987 for Soviet Jewry had 250,000 people. Do you think that many will show up this time? Somewhere in their permit request, the event organizers listed an anticipated crowd of 60,000. News media picked up on that phrase and began talking about the “tens of thousands” who are expected to show up. Rally organizers encouraged Jewish organizations planning to attend the rally to not talk about the anticipated total size of the rally, lest that number not be reached leading news media to spin the story as a “disappointing crowd shows up to support Israel.”
When I arrived at the rally an hour before start time there were a lot of people but there was also still a lot of space. By the time the program started the area in which I was standing was full. It would have been challenging for me to move around at that point so I decided to stay put and “rally” from one spot. It was difficult from my vantage point (towards the front, near the first set of screens) and from my height to see the size of the crowd. When it was announced that the crowd was 290,000 strong, the largest pro-Israel rally ever held in America, my heart swelled with pride. Pride in the Jewish community’s ability to mobilize and to come together with a strong voice in support of Israel. Pride that I and my daughter Shoshana had the opportunity to witness history and be a part of this moment. Pride in the strength of Am Yisrael and the virtue of Israel’s cause, one that you don’t have to be Jewish in order to appreciate. This was evident from the many “Christians Stand with Israel” signs at the rally.
While standing on the National Mall, I had no idea how many others were standing with me. Perhaps that is an apt metaphor for our current moment. The voices that today spew vitriolic anti-Israel and pro Hamas sentiment may be loud but they in fact represent a small number, too many for sure, but a small number relative to the total population of the United States. My experience makes me wonder about the little-known blessing that the Talmud records one is supposed to make when part of a crowd of 600,000: Baruch Ata…….Chacham Harazeem: “Blessed are You Hashem…the Knower of secrets.” On my way back from Dc I wondered: without drones or helicopters, how would anyone ever know that they were actually part of a group of 600,000? Practically this bracha is never recited. However, the language of the blessing is intriguing. What does a huge crowd have to do with God knowing secrets?
The Talmud (Brachot 58s) explains that every person is unique and yet God is able to know what each of us is thinking. Perhaps the lesson for us is that in the crowd on Tuesday in DC, there were 290,000 different motivations and reasons for being there. Yet God knows that there is a common theme that united us all. I believe that those of us in attendance were able to tap into that knowledge and feel the unity during the three hours of the rally. May we find ways to tap into that unity of cause and unity of purpose going forward – in service to Israel, our community and our world.
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