With the passing of President George H. W. Bush, another chapter in American history has been signed. He was my first American president. I had just graduated from high school in Israel and was waiting for my army service when Iraq invaded Kuwait and instigated the First Gulf War. Soon after, scud missiles were starting to land in the middle of Israel. It was a tough time — having to run for shelter in sealed rooms, wearing gas masks. My brother and sister were still serving in the IDF (Israeli Defense Force), and my father was recruited for reserve duty. I joined a few days before the war officially ended.

For political reasons, the coalition’s armed forces, headed by the United States and its commander in chief, President Bush, asked Israel to avoid retaliation and let the coalition wage the battle. After six weeks of active battle, the war was over. For me, President Bush was a determined soldier, fighting tyrannical regimes wherever they were, representing core American values. May his memory be for a blessing.

Lately, I’ve been “bingeing the Bible,” as I like to call it; I’m reading the Bible cover to cover, not waiting for the weekly episode. It becomes obvious that the beginning and end of the Biblical books, is determined by the life and death of the protagonist king, prophet, or leader, irrespective of the way they die. This idea starts with the Book of Genesis — which we just completed reading in synagogue, that ends with the death of Jacob and Joseph.  The Torah ends with the death of Moses, the Book of Joshua ends with the death of Joshua, giving room to the first judge to come on stage. 1 Samuel ends with the death of King Saul, while 2 Samuel begins and ends with King David. Things have to die before other things can begin. A new era beginning with a new leader.

The other feature that comes clear when reading the Bible straight through is the fact that stories are not always told in a chronological order.  Many times stories moves forward and backward at the same time. The people who are dead, come back to live. Departing and then reuniting with the characters.  But reading about them or telling their stories gives them their immortality. So even if they are gone, they are still circling around us. Maybe the person that knows it best is the Prophet Elisha, who saw his master, the Prophet Elijah, storm alive with a chariot into heaven.

Elisha gained a perspective which allows him to see beyond and notice the heavenly beings around us.  When he is engulfed by the King of Aram with mighty chariots and a great host, he does not despair. When his servant was crying out: “Alas, my master! what shall we do?” He answered: “Fear not: for they that are with us are more than they that are with them… And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw; and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.” (2 Kings 6:14-17) Elisha sees what we don’t see. Those who departed, are now the army around us that protects us.

We never know what a new leader would be like and what new era they will usher. All we can do is keep “seeing” our past and future leaders and know that their successes as well as their failures are always live in our ongoing story.  Unfortunately (or fortunately) we can’t binge life, or accelerate it forward and backward. We have to live one day at a time, one episode at a time.

Happy New Era!

—Rabbi Gadi Capela