ANZAC Day address 2022, Mount Scopus
Address by Rabbi Raymond Apple at the ANZAC Day dawn service at the Australian War Cemetery at Mount Scopus, Jerusalem, 25 April, 2022.
On Anzac Day we’re always rather solemn and serious, even spiritual.
We use prayer-words, even if praying doesn’t usually figure in our life.
Let’s recall the Chassidic Master, Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev.
Levi Yitzchak always said his prayers, Shacharit, Minchah and Ma’ariv.
One night, he looked at himself and said,
“Levi Yitzchak, what are you doing? You said the same thing yesterday!”
Then he said, “I did? But this time I really mean it!”
So it is with us:
We asked God last year and every year to remember the fallen,
To help us improve the world: but this time we really mean it.
There have been too many wars: now there is a new one in Ukraine.
There has been too much pain, and there is now more than a year ago.
What a tragedy! At dawn we can’t see the face of a brother or sister.
What a tragedy! O God, teach us how to turn enemies into friends.
O God, Your world is big enough: surely there is room for us all.
Help us to find each other, to uphold hope, not hate.
We said this last year, but this year we really mean it!
