4/7/20 Tuesday: "The Hunters" , Bentsching Gomeil , and Offering Thanksgiving

           I attended a wedding yesterday. Actually, I watched a wedding.  I have been watching Amazon's The Hunters. It is a 10 episode story about a group of Holocaust survivors living in 1977 New York teamed up with several other younger  Americans with certain special skills. They hunt Nazis that were brought to the U.S. during Operation Paperclip. Operation Paper Clip occurred after WWII when the U.S. secretly brought Nazi Scientists to the U.S. to help in its cold war and arms race with the Soviet Union. The Hunters are after those Nazis who are secretly trying to create a 4th Reich in the U.S. During one episode, two of the hunters are a couple who lost a son in the Shoah, who were later blessed with a daughter born in the U.S. In this particular episode, with concern that this might not be the best time for the wedding, the leader of the Hunters, also a survivor, explains to the youngest member of the team ( a 17-year-old Jewish kid from Brooklyn) that "we need to celebrate" life. The wedding occurs and it is incredibly powerful. Then during the party. the 17- year old is asked to make a toast.
          He recites Birkat HaGomeil (The Thanksgiving): Baruch Atah Adoshem Elokeinu Melech Ha'Olam HaGomel L'Chayavim Tovot Shegmalani Kol Tov - Blessed Are You Hashem Our King Of The  Universe Who Bestows Good Things Upon The Guilty, Who Has Bestowed Every Goodness Upon Me. Everyone who hears the blessing responds: Amen, Mi Sh'Gamalcha  Kol Tov Hu Yigamalcha Kol Tov Selah - Amen, May He Who Has Bestowed Goodness Upon You Continue To Bestow Goodness Upon You Forever. The blessing usually is made after someone has experienced a near-death experience. When a woman survives childbirth when a person survives an ocean crossing. It might seem like a strange toast, to offer thanksgiving, to 'Bentsche Gomeil" before surviving the near-death experience, especially to a young married couple. However, as I watched this wedding, (and actually teared up), I understood the importance of  Bentsching Gomeil before the fact, before the life-threatening moment. We can understand that Bentschig Gomeil is a blessing of hope, a blessing of the inevitability of survival, of getting through the difficulty. There is something powerful about thanking God for everything in life up until the moment that is about to endanger one's life. In this context, the blessing suggests that the person making the blessing acknowledges fear but is at peace and ready to handle the upcoming moment. As we continue to live through this plague,  and finish our [preparations for Passover; may we always keep in mind those things for which we are truly thankful and have the faith, trust and hope that we will continue to have reasons to be thankful in the future.

Peace,
Rav Yitz 


 

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