An amazing cycle of holidays plays itself out between Pesach and Shavuot. Overlaid upon our ancient journey from slavery to the fireworks at Sinai, we have a modern journey: the still bleeding wound of Holocaust Rememberance Day, which we celebrated at Kibbutz Yad Mordecai as Yom Zikaron l'Shoah u l'Gvura, the remembrance both of the Holocaust and of the Uprising. Mordecai Anelewich (leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising: the kibbutz is named for him) himself stands defiant, triumphant, in sculpture over the whole heartwrenching ceremony. He died with a sense of glory, triumphing in the fact that his people had risen to fight. The words, "L'Olam lo od", Never Again, mean "Never again will the people of Israel be without a powerful army to defend themselves." Hayalim climb to the monument, to the blast of loud, wailing shofars in the night. And then we have a separate day to remember the soldiers who fell defending modern Israel. Very hard. Sirens sound and the entire country stands utterly still, cars stopped on the highway and everyone getting out and standing still, silent, solemn. At precisely eight o'clock in the evening, all over the land, the weeping suddenly transforms into joyous fireworks, dance, song, a boundless all night celebration of the miracle, the State of Israel.
