Dear Friends,
We know the command, “Shma Yisra’el… Hear O Israel…”
It is found, originally, in this week’s Torah portion (Deuteronomy 6:6). Yet, sometimes, we are not so aware of that which we are hearing, or that to which we might listen.
“Hopelessly devoted to you…” The refrain from Olivia Newton-John’s memorable song in Grease, sung with John Travolta for which the Australian singer would become a pop-music icon, is not at all related nor comparable to “Shma Yisra’el… Hear O Israel…” Or is it?
It isn’t until one realizes that Newton-John was the granddaughter of the Jewish, Nobel Prize winner Max Born, the physicist known for particle theory and best friend of Albert Einstein, who fled Nazi Germany in 1933. Sometimes, Israel is not aware of what it is hearing…
Moreover, another grandfather of Newton-John was a famous German-Jewish jurist, and her father was a British MI5 officer who served on the Enigma Project to crack the secret Nazi military code, and who later would be responsible for capturing Rudolf Hess, the Deputy Fuhrer of Nazi Germany. Sometimes, it is remarkable what Israel is hearing…
Olivia Newton-John would be the world’s heart-throb, after singing with Danny Zuko in Grease. But, behind the blond hair, dark eyes and incomparable voice, was a story of a daughter of Jewish luminaries who sought to help save other Jews, and who would go on to an award-winning career, and later a life of seeking cancer support for those, like her, with the illness.
When we recite, “Hear O Israel,” we commonly implore one another to heed the words of The Eternal, and what god demands of us. Probing under the life of this musical star, we realize that sometimes it is just as vital to hear the under-recognized words and stories of the people of Israel, itself. And, sometimes those stories are complex, maybe somewhat hidden, and possibly lost.
This week, as the world mourns the untimely death of Olivia Newton-John, we both lose a gifted singer and social advocate, but we also regain the descendant of a celebrated Jewish family, and we reclaim a legacy – that we might Hear, O Israel.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
We know the command, “Shma Yisra’el… Hear O Israel…”
It is found, originally, in this week’s Torah portion (Deuteronomy 6:6). Yet, sometimes, we are not so aware of that which we are hearing, or that to which we might listen.
“Hopelessly devoted to you…” The refrain from Olivia Newton-John’s memorable song in Grease, sung with John Travolta for which the Australian singer would become a pop-music icon, is not at all related nor comparable to “Shma Yisra’el… Hear O Israel…” Or is it?
It isn’t until one realizes that Newton-John was the granddaughter of the Jewish, Nobel Prize winner Max Born, the physicist known for particle theory and best friend of Albert Einstein, who fled Nazi Germany in 1933. Sometimes, Israel is not aware of what it is hearing…
Moreover, another grandfather of Newton-John was a famous German-Jewish jurist, and her father was a British MI5 officer who served on the Enigma Project to crack the secret Nazi military code, and who later would be responsible for capturing Rudolf Hess, the Deputy Fuhrer of Nazi Germany. Sometimes, it is remarkable what Israel is hearing…
Olivia Newton-John would be the world’s heart-throb, after singing with Danny Zuko in Grease. But, behind the blond hair, dark eyes and incomparable voice, was a story of a daughter of Jewish luminaries who sought to help save other Jews, and who would go on to an award-winning career, and later a life of seeking cancer support for those, like her, with the illness.
When we recite, “Hear O Israel,” we commonly implore one another to heed the words of The Eternal, and what god demands of us. Probing under the life of this musical star, we realize that sometimes it is just as vital to hear the under-recognized words and stories of the people of Israel, itself. And, sometimes those stories are complex, maybe somewhat hidden, and possibly lost.
This week, as the world mourns the untimely death of Olivia Newton-John, we both lose a gifted singer and social advocate, but we also regain the descendant of a celebrated Jewish family, and we reclaim a legacy – that we might Hear, O Israel.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
