“WHILE YOU WERE ASLEEP”

A great many things happen during the night as we sleep. Nations go to war. Natural disasters devastate far off lands. Shares go up - shares go down. All over the world, national broadcasters schedule their morning programmes so that the wakening nations can hear several hours of news before starting the day. Yes, a great many things happen while you are sleeping.

However, it is a sad fact that a great many human dramas also play themselves out during this time. People lie awake and worry. Many are ill, some are hungry. In our country, it is the job of the Country Communities Department of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies to keep a watchful eye out for those who have
perhaps been left behind in the great headlong rush to the cities, or, sadly, to destinations over the sea where much of our once strong community now lives.

There are many needs that have to be taken care of “out there” in “the country” while you sleep. All over the face of South Africa, in little towns stretching from the hot Far North down through the Great and Small Karoos, and around the long stretching coast of this land, there are still small pockets of Jews to be found.
Most are elderly, many of them ill. In some places there are less than the fingers of one hand. In other places there are thriving little communities, but, without the Jewish infrastructures that Jews all over the world need to function as a people. Jews need Rabbis, to circumcise their sons, teach them their Barmitzvah portions, to marry them, and, heaven forbid, to bury them……. and all this in a Jewish way.

Not only do people’s needs have to be taken care of but also the now unused but once proud synagogues, and all inside need to be managed. They cannot simply be abandoned and left to disappear into the haziness of history. Then there are also cemeteries to be taken care of…..graves to be cleaned and maintained, fallen
headstones to be repaired. All the assets of these once vibrant little communities have to be gathered and safely put in trust so that perhaps one day, if Jews once again return…….

So, while you are asleep, the Country Communities Department is on the move. Yom Tovim are being planned. The Country Communities Rabbi is criss-crossing the country, chasing through the night to meet a deadline, to comfort a Jew….to celebrate our joy to Hashem.

Maybe you will get a better insight into the workings of this vital and vibrant division of our community. Perhaps it will even allow you to sleep a little easier knowing we are out there ............ for, has it not been promised that….

…..not one Jew will be forgotten…..?

Rabbi Moshe Silberhaft
Spiritual leader to the Country Communities