PELONI: Am Israel Chai!
The willingness, nay, the insistence on taking responsibility for oneself and for the Jewish People is the epitome of the Zionist dream.
Photo by Cole Keister on Unsplash
We are all still in awe of the bravery and heroics of our fellow Israelis, “regular” people who demonstrated incredible awareness and courage in assessing and addressing what could easily have been a horrific terror attack.
Many have attributed the events to a series of miracles: the willingness and ability of the captain to open the cockpit despite having been stabbed; the fortuitous seating of Israelis at the front of the plane who heard noises of distress and acted and summoned others to act.
Far be it from me to look a gift miracle in the mouth. As Ben Gurion pointed out, to live in Israel one has to believe in miracles. So, for sure, Hashem was helping us and orchestrating our salvation.
But as our Sages teach us, Hashem is looking to us for reciprocity. He is looking for us to do our share. We need to follow through on the opportunities He presents to and for us.
The one film clip that was for me the most powerful and eye opening showed the now heralded plumber, Yaniv Hayon, running from the middle of the airplane to the front while the plane was experiencing a dive.
Think about this: Yaniv is not anywhere close to the cockpit. There are reports that he heard screaming come from the front of the plane (the product of yet another miracle – the girl and her mother sitting upfront who heard distress coming from the cockpit).
He also realized that the steep dive was a sign of extreme distress, and his instinctive reaction was to rush to the likely source of the distress.
In other words, he ran towards, not away from danger. He took responsibility, asking himself how he could help to address a dire situation.
There would be those who would say that Yaniv was being reckless, potentially endangering himself and possibly others as well. This is the prevalent Western mindset: don’t get involved, don’t possibly put yourself into harm’s way; this is not your role, and others can address the situation.
The epitome of this orientation was shown a few months ago when a thug entered the Central Synagogue in midtown Manhattan and physically attacked a 63 year old woman before being subdued by on site security personnel.
Fair enough. But the other congregants did not try to confront the attacker; rather, they cowered where they were, or fled from the confrontation,
I don’t mean to condemn the response. It is perhaps all too normative and to be expected. I mention it to highlight the extraordinary difference between what we call the norm, and what I would call the Israeli exception.
What Yaniv and his fellow rescuers demonstrated is an instinct, a behavior that is part and parcel of the Israeli sensibility. This sensibility, demonstrated time and time again by our soldiers and civilians alike during the past three years, show Israelis running towards the scene of the problem, not away from it
Yaniv also ran towards the problem.
This instinctive willingness to engage, to pursue, to take responsibility is one of the pillars of the Zionist imperative: of the need for there to be a sovereign, autonomous Jewish State.
It is part of our core Zionist ethos to take responsibility for ourselves, individually, collectively and as a nation. When leaders from Golda Meir to Benjamin Netanyahu say that Israelis have nowhere else to go, and that we have no choice, they are reflecting this ethos of responsibility and the recognition that only we can ourselves can determine, project and protect our own selves.
The reciprocity that I believe that Hashem is looking for from us in effecting miracles is just this innate and intrinsic sense of responsibility.
We rightly assume that no one else will help us, especially if we don’t rise to help ourselves. We certainly are not waiting for another cavalry to appear on our behalf. Our destiny is in our own hands.
Zionism was predicated on the need and the desire to assume that destiny for ourselves.
How exhilarating, inspiring and instructional is it to see that willingness to assume our destiny played out in a such a dramatic and serious case in point.
Our heroes on the plane did not only save their fellow passengers, the plane’s captain and, inferentially, themselves. They also showed us an amazing example and taught us a breathtaking lesson in the need for and the importance of assuming responsibility.
With all the mundane challenges we face, and the noise we encounter, we can sometimes forget what it is that we cherish about our Land, our People and our State.
Our Flydubai heroes pierced our everyday awareness with a profound existential message: we are the People who won’t run away from trouble and distress. We will confront it head on, and, with Hashem’s help, we will prevail.
Douglas Altabef is the Chairman of the Board of Im Tirtzu and a Director of the Israel Independence Fund
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