Rabbi Aaron Flanzraich
Chairman, Israel Bonds Canada Synagogue Division

A story is told about Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben Gurion. In the early 1950’s the state’s population tripled in less than a decade due to a dual influx of immigrants: European Jews who had survived the Shoah, and the hundreds of thousands of Jews from “Eastern” communities. Ben Gurion visited a school in one of the many Ma’abarot – the makeshift towns that housed many of the immigrants until proper housing could be provided to them. These towns were at best tin shacks, at worst they were army surplus tents. Stifling hot in the summer, wet and cold in the winters.

The school was filled with the Iraqi immigrants. Ben Gurion asked them who the first Zionist was. Some said Herzl, others flattered him and said Ben Gurion. But he reminded them that the first Zionist who ever lived was someone just like them — an Iraqi Jew named Avraham. He crossed a land many hundreds of miles, to a destination unfamiliar and unknown to him for only one reason: because it contained a sacred promise.

One of the most least understood of all early characters in Tanach is Yitzchak. He says little, seems to do less, seemingly the perennial ‘victim’ who is played by his father, wife, even sons. Yet despite all of this there is one particular point made by the late Israeli Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren y”h about Yitzchak. Yitzchak was commanded ‘Shichoon ba’aretz’. To live in the land. In the Midrash R. Shlomo Bar Nachman tells us this means not only to build a place where things can grow and live, but also a place where the Shechinah can find a home (what a beautiful play on words - Shichoon...Shechinah).

The mission of Israel Bonds is a mission close to our hearts – of building a land where “building” is synonymous with “inner” and “outer” worlds. Of a land that helps its people realize not what they are but what they can become.

The hope is that the ‘bond’ will continue to grow.

B’vrachah,

Aaron Flanzraich
Senior Rabbi
Beth Shalom Synagogue