The current Mezuzah cover that I will soon be affixing to my doorpost in my room is pictured below. It is an exact replica of the mezuzah cover used by Israel Yitzhak Meidzyrecki. During the Holocaust Israel was living in the Warsaw Ghetto on the “Aryan” side of the wall. He was recruited into the underground by his future wife Vladka. His job was to recruit Jewish fighters into the underground and to find a hiding place for them.
Years later he returned to the Ghetto and found the mezuzah cover affixed to his door. This mezuzah cover was the sign of the resistance, when people saw this mezuzah cover, they knew they had found Israel’s home.
The verse at the top of this page translates into “The Eternity of Israel will never lie.” Not only was it the basis and code name for a secret set of Jewish spies who brought down the fall of the Ottoman Empire in the land of Israel, but it has become a motto for the everlasting Jewish people.
I recently spoke to an NCSYer about whether or not I thought he should shave his head in solidarity with our brothers and sisters who were forced to do so earlier, and I suggested that instead he show them what a Jew looks like today, proud, strong, and openly Jewish. It was because in my mind, the ultimate sign of our resistance and fight against everything the Nazis stood to represent is our faith. It is our Mezuzah Cover on our door post. Our continuation of our practices, faiths and beliefs, our fighting for a sovereign Jewish state in the our Jewish homeland, our perseverance in the faith of seeming endless struggles, that is our ultimate sign of resistance.
The Eternity of Israel will never lie. The Jewish nation will live on forever, and it is Jewish people like you that ensure that to be the case.
When Ben-Gurion founded Holocaust Memorial Day in Israel (Yom Ha’Shoah) he decided that the Jewish people have enough days to remind themselves of the tragedies of the past. The Jewish people have enough memorial days. Instead he decided to found Yom Ha’Shoah, VeHagevruah, The Day of the Destruction and of the Strength. Ben-Gurion chose the anniversary of the beginning of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising to establish his memorial day. Because the Jewish people who built the State of Israel understood one thing, that our ultimate resistance is our continuity. The State of Israel itself, is the ultimate resistance to the destruction of European Jewry.
Israel is the name of our people, our land and our state. And most importantly, it is the name of one of the forefathers of our people. Israel means that you struggle with man and Gd, and you are capable of the struggle. Life presents us with challenges and struggle, but as members of the people of Israel we know that we are capable of the struggle. Know that as a member of Israel, like all members of Israel before you, you are living proof that the Eternity of Israel will not lie. Know that your existence, your continuity of our past, our traditions, our beliefs and devotion to Gd is that ultimate sign of the resistance against the evils of the world, both historical and current.
Know that as you wander through the streets of life, The Eternity of the People of Israel, the Land of Israel, the State of Israel and the Gd of Israel will not lie, and your devotion is the ultimate sign of that resistance.