Walter Benjamin’s Postcard and the Fallen Sukkah of David: Welcoming the Surviving Hostages Home

I feel so many swirling emotions as I breathlessly await the safe return of the remaining hostages: the ones who have survived.

I’ve been fixated on the story of one hostage who was returned yet vowed not to undergo serious surgery that he required until the remaining hostages were returned.

This eery but profound bond born out of a shared captivity in the hellish hamas tunnel Inferno is reminiscent of the unique connection that holocaust survivors shared with one another— only because there was no way to fully capture what had happened there unless you were there yourself.

Their captors too, are not only reminiscent of, they are full on clones of SS soldiers. They are the heirs of the grand mufti of Jerusalem, who in direct alliance with Hitler, planted the seeds of Jihad long before 1948 and the modern day establishment of the state of Israel.

These Hamas modern day Nazi doppelgängers, have in ways, surpassed their predecessors.

The “jinns” — central to Islamic folklore, have moved far beyond the benign realm of the mythological. Each of these cold blooded and ruthless murderers, are truly demonic creatures, barely disguised as humans.

They have not only destroyed hope for the people they purport to represent, they have also functioned as sorcerers, aimed at the weak and disenchanted segments of the western mind as it has become riddled with resentment and bitterness.

The purging of imagination that is the direct result of many various efforts, most notable of which has been the blacklisting of much of western literature, alongside the demonization of the very notion of personal initiative, ambition, and personal responsibility, and the sowing of guilt for the crime of striving for excellence— has provided the fertile soil in which the seeds of totalitarianism masquerading as social justice have been planted.

When Asked as I frequently am how I, A fiercely proud Jew and Staunch lover and supporter of Israel feel about being so marginalized in the “wider society” .. I can only shake my head in disbelief at the notion of being distraught over being isolated from zombie like hordes who have surrendered their minds, hearts and conscience.

Like Goethes Marguerite, who hypnotised, commits her fate to the will of Faust, knowing full well that his allegiance lies elsewhere. ( queers for palestine perfect and sad case in point.) “Ah could I touch and hold him and kiss him as I wanted,” is her dream, despite being conscious of her voluntary loss of self—“My peace is gone, my heart is heavy, I can find it never if I cannot have him.

So, sorry, no thank you. I won’t accompany you on your journey back to the 16th century pre-enlightenment era. While there, feel free to explore the Antisemitic instincts this has triggered in you, and what it is that is such a deep source of shame for you that you are compelled to transfer it all to the Jewish people. We will remain in the 21st century where we are empowered to resist being scapegoated.

You might have more time to actually reflect now that the “immediate cease fire” you protested for has gone into effect. But wait, is that the sound of a protest AGAINST the cease fire that I hear?

Scratch that. You’re on your own. I hope that like Dorothy, who was also knocked unconscious, you will discover that Oz is an imposter, a seductive and enticing invitation into an unreal world where murderers are hailed as freedom fighters, when in fact they have been ruthlessly using men women and children as human shields, withholding food and aid, and murdering the courageous voices of Palestinian dissent, one by one and leaving their dead bodies on their families front doorsteps.

These are your heros. Not mine. Not now. Not ever.

No matter how many of you there are. As soon as the nakedness of the Emperor becomes more apparent, as it has already begun to, then people will be forced to recognize Oz as the demonic imposter that he is and always has been.

I want to finally return to the hostages as they are being finally returned to us.

They will have redefined the sacred history of the Jewish capacity for resilience and survival. For me their miraculous survival is front and center.

As I sit, face awash in tears surrounded by the frail, humble, shaky walls of the Sukka, I’m reminded of the endurance and ultimate resurgence of the Mythical “Fallen Sukkah of David” whose walls always prove to be sturdy enough to sustain the winds that are perpetually attempting to blow it down.

Only here can I attempt to picture them. Yet I cannot. Instead I imagine a piercing light, a Biblical glow hovering over and from within the narrow emaciated folds of their tragic, skeletal ghastliness.

Their hopeful return, even the seemingly strong likelihood of it, will forever paint the landscape of Sukkot with the bright hues of hopefulness in their return. Even as Simchat Torah will forever be associated with the deep trauma and searing pain of their abduction, and of all those murdered in cold blood.

Though the ecstatic Joy of their return will no doubt be tempered by their condition, as well as those that never made it home—celebrate we shall.

We shall celebrate even though we are so fatigued mentally, emotionally, and spiritually by those who attempt to wear us down with their spurious accusations and libelous claims under which lies a degree of residual hatred and resentment that has fed a global surge of Jew Hatred.

But we cannot and must not allow that to happen. We will not.

The story of the hostage that I mentioned above reminded me of a Walter Benjamin story from his “tales of loneliness”

“One afternoon in this labyrinth I stumbled across the junk shop in which picture postcards could be bought. Some were displayed in the window and among them was a photo of a town wall as has been preserved in this corner of the world. I had never seen one like this before though the photograph had captured its whole magic. The wall swung through the landscape like a voice, like a hymn through the centuries of its duration. I promised myself not to buy this card until I had seen the wall that it depicted with my own eyes.”

The returning Hostages are the quintessential personification of that wall that is the symbol of Jewish survival through so many centuries of persecution and hatred. They return home to the Western Wall, the source of the forditude of all the walls. They, and the walls of the Sukkah that have sustained us as we have sustained them in turn

The irony of this cannot be lost as it is the maligned Jews, and the state of Israel, who from their narrow and embattled slice of the east, from their perpetually threatened Sukkah—hold the line and steady the shaky and endangered Wall that upholds Western values and culture.

The Western wall is also Walter benjamin’s wall. It is our wall. It is a wall that is so critical for us to begin the deep healing work, the surgery that we are so desperately in need of as a people. But not until we find that wall—as Benjamin ultimately does. Only then after he once again “stumbles suddenly upon it,” only then can he “purchase” it.

“The picture postcard was still hanging in the window. The painter had added a sugar cone and some bread.”

Shabbat Shalom,

Much Love,

Rabbi Yossi