Parashat Chayei Sarah

In the wake of Sarah’s death, Avraham purchases the first piece of land ever owned by the Jewish people in Eretz Yisrael. When Avraham describes himself to the Hittites in order to buy it, he says, “גֵּר־וְתוֹשָׁב אָנֹכִי עִמָּכֶם”, “I am a stranger and a resident among you.”

Rashi explains that Avraham was saying: If you let me live here peacefully, I will dwell as a resident; if not, I still have a right to this land, given by God.

Avraham holds humility and conviction. He recognizes he’s a guest, yet he refuses to let others define his place. He insists on agency, on telling his own story — what becomes our collective story.

Last month, I had the honor of representing our school at the 39th World Zionist Congress. Sitting in a room filled with Jews from around the world, religious and secular, left and right, Brazilian, Russian, Swedish, Ugandan, Israeli, and more, I felt that same energy that began with Avraham. People didn’t agree on much, but everyone there cared passionately about the future of our people.

 

Zionism is not only about a state where we are not guests; it’s about our story. The Zionist movement was born when Jews refused to let the world define us as passive victims of history. Like Avraham, we rose up and said: We belong. We have a future. We are going to write it ourselves.

In Sarah Hurwitz’s new book, As a Jew: Reclaiming Our Story from Those Who Blame, Shame, and Try to Erase Us. She says, “Judaism is not something to be defended. It is something to be discovered. It’s not a burden; it’s an inheritance.”

Her words deeply resonate with me, especially here at The Leffell School, because it is here that I discovered my Judaism as a student, and it is here I witness our students discovering what being Jewish means for them. I am grateful to our ancestors who passed us this inheritance, but perhaps even more so, I am grateful to our students who proudly accept this inheritance with both humility and conviction.