By Sam Balogh
If there is one thing about I have come to understand regarding Israeli history this semester, it is how instrumental the Six Day War was in creating the current political climate. In the process of trying to understand what it is people believe and why it is they believe it, we were introduced to many different schools of thought. Some of our speakers represented the “left” in Israel, some the “right”, and we even heard from the “center”. While it was interesting to hear from them all, 1967 was soon the center of the conversation, and rightfully so. I think it is even safe to say that if one understands the war of 1967, one understands Israel. This is certainly the opinion of Yossi Klein HaLevi in his book Like Dreamers. It is one thing to learn about the war from the perspectives authors, historians, or teachers… it is, however, something else to learn it from someone who fought in the war. We were fortunate enough to learn about the Six Day War, and the conquering of Jerusalem first hand during our time with Rav Yoel Bin Nun. Rav Bin Nun is an animated man, who stands strong to his beliefs. During our time with him, he spoke solely in Hebrew (I may add this it was obvious that he knew English), and he was passionate about the Jewish people and Israel.
Aside from being able to relive the events of the Six Day War with Rav Bin Nun, I was most taken by one thing that he did and one thing that he said. Firstly, he spoke to us in Hebrew. I think he did this on principle… the story for him happened in Hebrew, therefore in order to retell it authentically he must do so in Hebrew. But I also think that he must just believe in the Hebrew language, and that is it is the language of the Jewish people, and the language of the State of Israel. For him, being in Israel, and probably being a Jew, means an understanding of the language. I tend to agree with him, however, I also think that Hebrew is crucial to the country and it’s people. I find his stubbornness to only speak in Hebrew as a good challenge to myself, to continue to struggle with the language.
Finally, towards the end of his time with us, Rav Bin Nun spoke to us about our potential. I think he actually meant it… sometime I do not feel as though everyone has confidence in the next generation. Rav Bin Nun was different. He recognized the potential in the room and I think he was confident is our capacity. This was inspiring and showed a great deal of humility on his end. From our time with him, I felt reassured that my time spent in Israel, and on Nachshon was well worth my time, and that my trajectory towards Jewish professionalism was the right things for me to be doing.
