Beyond the Headlines: The Charedi Rally in Bnei Brak
- Sivan Rahav Meir
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
A weekly glimpse into the Israel you won’t read about in the news
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Most people have not heard about this rally, and that’s a shame because it’s a deeply important part of our story.
Julie Kuperstein, mother of released hostage Bar Kuperstein, had been dreaming of this rally for almost two years. Her husband, Tal, who had been injured in a car accident, achieved astonishing physical and emotional milestones: He managed to stand again and regained his speech, “for Bar.” At the same time, Julie reached new heights of maternal and Jewish strength, forging a profound and unlikely bridge between the secular and charedi communities.
I had seen her on Shabbat, holidays, and weekdays slowly crafting a new, shared language. We last met just before the hostage deal, when she led a Shabbat for students and young adults who observed the first Shabbat of the year together in Jerusalem.
Over the course of two years, she had imagined what Bar’s homecoming would look like. She always said, “When Bar comes home, our journey will go through Bnei Brak. I don’t really know this city, but it embraced me and became my second home. People simply are unaware of the extraordinary people who make up this community.”
And then … it happened.
Thousands lined the streets of Bnei Brak, singing and dancing around Bar, accompanied by a motorcycle convoy that escorted the celebration. Bar arrived with family and friends, looking nothing like the stereotypical charedi crowd, for a reception in the City Council hall where Julie gave a moving speech. She shared that at Sheba Medical Center, Bar’s first stop immediately after his release, they allowed her to sleep next to him at the hospital’s maternity hotel — and she felt it was perfectly fitting. It truly was a birth.
At the end of her list of thanks, she thanked the Jewish people “for every single tear.”
Then the convoy brought this young man, who had worked at the Nova music festival, straight to the home of Rabbi Moshe Hillel Hirsch, one of the leading rabbis of the charedi community, for a short conversation. I watched as Julie spoke to the rabbi about the past two years, sharing insights and lessons. And I thought: someone like her really can bridge divides and find solutions.
Deputy Mayor Shlomo Elharar said at the event: “Bar, not only have you come home — you are bringing all of us back home!”
One can only hope. The tone and language of the former hostages as they appeared across interviews and broadcasts suggest that they have risen to a higher plane. They speak of meaning, spirit, and soul.
May they elevate us — in politics, in the media, and online — together with them.
Words of Comfort
This November 11, the 20th of Cheshvan, is the fifth yahrzeit of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, former chief rabbi of Britain.
Here is an inspiring passage from “To Be a Jew,” a booklet that I was privileged to compile of Rabbi Sacks’ teachings:
“Sometimes it is when we feel most alone that we discover we are not alone. We can encounter God in the midst of fear or a sense of failure.
“Sometimes our deepest spiritual experiences come when we least expect them, when we are closest to despair. It is then that the masks we wear are stripped away. We are at our point of maximum vulnerability—and it is when we are most fully open to God that God is most fully open to us. “God is close to the broken-hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit” (Ps. 34:18).
“Rebbe Nachman of Breslov used to say: ‘A person needs to cry to his Father in heaven with a powerful voice from the depths of his heart. Then God will listen to his voice and turn to his cry.’
“We find God not only in holy or familiar places but also in the midst of a journey, alone at night. ‘Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for You are with me’ (Ps.23:4). The most profound of all spiritual experiences, the base of all others, is the knowledge that we are not alone.
“There may be times in our lives—certainly there have been in mine—when the sun disappears and we enter the cloud of black despair. You can lose faith in humanity, or in yourself, or both. At such times, the knowledge that God has faith in us is transformative, redemptive.
“The real religious mystery, according to Judaism, is not our faith in God. It is God’s faith in us.
“We are here because a loving God brought the universe and life, and us, into existence—a God who knows our fears, hears our prayers, believes in us more than we believe in ourselves, who forgives us when we fail, lifts us when we fall and gives us the strength to overcome despair.”
Download your copy of Sivan Rahav-Meir’s booklet with commentary from Rabbi Sacks zt”l To Be a Jew in English free of charge here: https://sivanrahavmeir.com/to-be-a-jew/
Find the original version in Hebrew here: http://bit.ly/3yxoYkf
Want to read more by Sivan Rahav Meir?
Google The Daily Thought or visit sivanrahavmeir.com
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