| World War I was beyond horrific. Millions of soldiers were killed in the trenches due to everything from poison gas to machine gun fire, sniping, devastating artillery barrages, aerial bombardment, and disease. Millions more were forever scarred physically, mentally, and spiritually from the horrors of that terrible conflict. Of these, many young men quite literally had their faces ripped off by bullets and shrapnel. The British alone suffered 60,500 such injuries [1]. Plastic surgery at this time was nascent and overwhelmed by the sheer number of casualties [2]. Many of these soldiers had left home as young men, teenagers in fact. Now, when they looked in the mirror, they were frightened and ashamed of what they saw in their reflection. They felt, with good reason unfortunately, that they would be shunned and cast out for their horrific disfigurements. |
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| Tragically, many did withdrew from society and mournfully there were suicides. The disfigured veteran community sadly began to refer to themselves as “the broken gargoyles” [3]. However, in the midst of this heartbreak came renewal, revival, and hope from an unlikely source…artists, specifically sculptors. Using a combination of photographs, plaster molds, tin sheets, hair, metal wire, and glasses, these talented and benevolent artists made incredible prosthetic faces. The masks they made gave these wounded veterans a renewed sense of confidence and optimism. One of the most famous of these artists was American Anna Coleman Ladd [4]. A Pennsylvania-born sculptor, wealthy socialite, and wife of a doctor, she volunteered with the American Red Cross to work with the wounded and disfigured. She truly was an eshet chayil – a woman of valor – and the work of her hands was a prime example of chesed shel emet- a true act of loving kindness. |
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| As I read this week’s parsha of Chayei Sarah (Genesis 23:1-25:18), I couldn’t help but see the parallels between Rebecca with Isaac and Anna Ladd with the wounded servicemen of World War I. |
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| At that beginning of the parsha, we are told that Sarah, the (first) matriarch of our people has died (Genesis 23:2). The Midrashic text Pirkei de Rabbi Eliezer tells us that her manner of death is especially tragic. Incensed that Abraham has passed the test of faith and loyalty that was the Akeidah (the binding and near sacrifice of Isaac), Sammael/Satan tells Sarah that Abraham had offered Isaac up as a burnt offering [5]. Dismayed and shocked by the news, she dies on the spot [6]. |
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| Let’s look at this from Isaac’s perspective: he has received multiple blows in an incredibly short amount of time. He almost died when God ordered his father to sacrifice him. Next, his father unhesitatingly and unquestioningly followed God’s command to sacrifice him. And now, in the immediate aftermath of this ordeal and crucible, his mother has died. On top of that, scholar Professor Aaron Koller, author of Unbinding Issac: The Significance of the Akeidah for Modern Jewish Thought, teaches that, following the events on Mount Moriah, Abraham never speaks to Isaac again [7]. With his world shattered around him, Isaac is a broken man on so many levels, and honestly, who can blame him? |
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| Rabbi Jose of the 2nd century tells us that Isaac mourned his mother for three years, an arguably long amount of time [8]. However, with the arrival of his wife Rebecca, Rabbi Jose says, Isaac “forgot the mourning of his mother” [9]. As the Torah itself tells us, “she [Rebecca] became his wife: and he loved her. And Isaac was comforted for his mother” (*Genesis 24:67). |
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| Just as Anna Ladd helped wounded soldiers rebuild their shattered faces and upended lives, so too was Rebecca able to get Isaac out of a very dark place and help him move on from a very painful chapter of his life. With Rebecca, Isaac built a new life for himself, the crowning achievement of which was his two sons, Jacob and Esau. |
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| One takeaway from these two stories is this: we have the ability to be there for someone who is going through an extremely challenging season of life. When we help a friend find a new job after the company they worked for for years suddenly goes under right before the holidays; when we put together a fundraiser, food drive, and volunteer group for a family who has lost everything in a house fire; when we build a ramp for a neighbor who has been seriously injured and cannot walk up the front steps of their house; and when we simply take a friend out for a beer so they can have a sympathetic ear after they tell us that their wife served him with divorce papers, we are doing something noble and righteous. Our help, our assistance, our efforts, our presence – our willingness to walk with those who are in pain – is both holy and righteous. |
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| As we enter the holiday season, a time meant to be happy and joyous, we know that there are many out there who are struggling. Whether it be loneliness, family estrangement, depression, food insecurity, homelessness, or not having enough money to buy gifts, each of us can be there to help and support those in need. |
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| Bizrat HaShem, with God’s help and guidance, may we all be inspired to act in the spirit of Rebecca our foremother and the American heroine Anna Coleman Ladd. |
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| Wishing you a Good Shabbos and a great weekend! |
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| Bivrakha, |
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Rabbi Aaron
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| [1] Barrett, Claire. “The American woman who sculpted new faces for battle-scarred WWI vets.” Military Times. November 30, 2024. https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2024/11/30/the-american-woman-who-sculpted-new-faces-for-battle-scarred-wwi-vets/ |
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| [2] Alexander, Caroline. “Faces of War.” Smithsonian Magazine. February 2007. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/faces-of-war-145799854/ |
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| [3] Daley, Paul. “Broken gargoyles: the disfigured soldiers of the First World War.” The Guardian. May 25, 2014. https://www.theguardian.com/world/postcolonial/2014/may/26/broken-gargoyles-the-disfigured-soldiers-of-the-first-world-war |
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| [4] Ibid Barrett, Claire. |
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| [5] *Pirkei De Rabbi Eliezer 32:8. |
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| [6] *Ibid. |
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| [7] Hirt-Manheimer, Aron. “Understanding the Significance of the Akeidah for Modern Jewish Thought: A Conversation with Jewish scholar and author Aaron Koller.” Reform Judaism. https://reformjudaism.org/understanding-significance-akeidah-modern-jewish-thought |
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| [8] *Pirkei De Rabbi Eliezer 32:10 |
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| [9] *Ibid. |
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| *courtesy of Sefaria.org |
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