Behalothecha: D Day

Behalothecha: D Day

Today is the anniversary of D-Day, the establishment of  an anti Nazi beachhead in Europe 70 years ago. The rescuers arrive.

אוּד מֻצָּל מֵאֵשׁ.a brand plucked [rescued] out  of the fire, a line from this weeks haftorah is inscribed on my mother's gravestone.  This is the common signal  that the interred was a Holocaust survivor. 

From my perch as the son the ur-survivors, I see everyone in my my generation as the children of survivors:  war  veterans, fugitives, survivors of the depression,  survivors of guilt, survivors of all the travails  of their generation.  All are hardened and tempered by their fires. 

And my generation: soft; complainers. Who will give us meat?  Who will do things that a reasonable person would consider impossible for us? No request is beyond asking. 

Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men that were upon the face of the earth.—וְהָאִישׁ מֹשֶׁה ענו [עָנָיו] מְאֹד מִכֹּל הָאָדָם אֲשֶׁר עַל פְּנֵי הָאֲדָמָה.

The word  ענו is related to the idea of poverty. Moshe's descent from the royal house of Egypt to the status of exiled fugitive tempered him. 

Moshe was the most  ענו person in history.  My father was the most  ענו man I have ever known.