The Rocket’s Red Glare
When Francis Scott Key penned the lyrics to what would become the American National Anthem, he attempted to describe a battle near Baltimore during the War of 1812. He aimed to restore national pride and confidence after the British forces humbled the fledgling American ones. He captured the image of the American flag standing steady despite the many explosives fired by the British. “The rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that our flag was still there…”
Many Americans still know the lyrics to the Star Spangled Banner. The image of the banner or flag still there through the bombs and rockets helped to instill a secure feeling in the Americans at that time.
Having been in Eretz Yisrael during war time, and very recently as well, the description that Key gave us is, for Jewish people, more than an attempt to portray a battle scene. It’s more than an image. The glare of rockets speeding across the sky, the glow of counter-missiles rushing to intercept them, the bombs bursting in air and on the ground and the sirens blaring their moaning roar are very much a reality. They are not an image or a painting or an artist’s rendition of a historical scene. They are for real, and being on the ground and awaiting the outcome: will the rocket explode in the air and will the shrapnel rain down, or will the rocket evade the missile and find a target, all of which instills high anxiety, fear, and dread.
Israeli scientists work furiously and brilliantly to create tools to deal with these realities. Jews across the globe participate too, through reciting of Tehillim, and prayers. In my own minyan, I have urged our congregants to desist from talking during services, and to stand up and join in these additional tefillos. It is curious to me that at times, visitors to our minyan, including those from Eretz Yisrael, are bewildered by our insistence that they stand up at the close of davening and recite Tehillim. But this is the practice in our shul, and we hope that all Jews, regardless of their ideology or politics, recognize that our nation is imperiled and that our primary weapon consists of the words soaring from our hearts and lips, and our ordnance is our keeping the ordinances of Torah.
The Jewish people are at war. Whether on the sacred ground of the Holy Land or in the enclaves and communities where Jews reside across the globe, we are under siege, as much of the world looks at us with scorn as the “aggressors” and we are branded collectively as the “Zionist foe” because we are Jewish. Racial profiling is supposed to be illegal, yet there is a profiling of Jews as if we are all aligned with Israel and hence part of the “Zionist entity.” This is one reason that the protests, persecution, and rioting take place anywhere there is a Jewish presence. So, we are all drawn into the war, whether on a battlefield, or beneath the skies of the Holy Land, or superficially sheltered in some remote region far from the Middle East.
Someone once defined the United Nations as 192 wolves and one sheep taking a vote about what to have for lunch. We are outnumbered and always have been. We are out-hated too, by religious and political charters that oppose our right to exist. By all odds, we should not have survived thus far and by all statistics, we should not make it through this latest barrage of weaponry and assaults. What is clear to all who look through the haze of warfare is that we have One thing going for us. The rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air, give proof day and night that Hashem is always there. Turn to Him. Rely on Him. He is all that we have, and He is everything we need. n
Rabbi Dr. Dovid Fox is a forensic and clinical psychologist, and director of Chai Lifeline Crisis Services. To contact Chai Lifeline’s 24-hour crisis helpline, call 855-3-CRISIS or email [email protected]. Learn more at www.chailifeline.org/crisis.
