Adina Roth – Head of Jewish Life

On Wednesday, I had the privilege of sharing a few words with the Year 12 students at Graduation Assembly…

Boker tov Emanuel and a special greeting to Year 12s,

I am sure there are so many feelings, now, ALL THE FEELS, as you prepare to say goodbye to many years of schooling, you have your graduating dinner tonight, then exams on the horizon, and then your whole lives ahead of you.

On the first day of Rosh Hashanah, we read the story in Bereshit when Sarah our first matriarch and wife of Avraham, finally has a child Yitzchak, after waiting her entire life. Because of some family tensions, shortly after this, she asks her maidservant Hagar and Hagar’s son Ishmael to leave the home. Avram is disturbed by this as Hagar is also his wife and Ishmael is his son, but he follows Sarah’s wish and giving Hagar only some bread and water, sends them both away. This is the Ancient Near East and so Hagar and Ishmael go out into the desert and very soon, the water and bread are finished and they both become weak.

Eventually Hagar is so distraught that she places her weak son a bow’s shot away from her saying, “I can’t see the death of my child”. Into this bleak scene, we are given a tiny spark of hope:  A bow’s shot away, kimtachaveri Keshet, is a curious way to measure distance. At this point, Hagar lifts up her voice and cries to God, she prays.

A short while later, an angel appears and advises Hagar to open her eyes. Right where the is, there is a ma’ayan, a wellspring of water and she and her son drink and survive. Ishmael grows up to become, wait for it…. an archer, a man of the bow.

It is interesting that the text tells us that Hagar placed Ishmael a bow’s distance away. Interesting because a few lines later, he becomes the bow, or a bow man of sorts.  A bow or Keshet is the exact same word used in the Torah for a rainbow. Drawing on this link, Rabbi David Ingber points out that even when things are hard in the story, by measuring the distance between Hagar and Yishmael using the image of a bow, we are reminded of the first Keshet, the rainbow after Noah and the flood. Into this scene of despair, we are told that sometimes hope is just beyond the bow… or to quote Rabbi Ingber again, ‘somewhere over the rainbow.’

A few months ago, I was on the Basketball Court on a rainy afternoon when a beautiful rainbow arched over the Year 12s favourite tree and the Brender Moss building, shining a halo around our school, this ultimate symbol of hope.

Year 12s, as you leave and embark on new lives, there may be moments where you feel out at sea, or in the desert, alone and wondering what next. But even at those harder moments, remember the Keshet, the bow, that’s in this week’s Rosh Hashanah Parsha, your graduating portion. Somewhere over the rainbow, whatever is tough will pass, you will get through it and whatever experiences you have in life, they will form you and move you to your next step. Gradually, it won’t be about getting to the end of the rainbow but about living your own hope and optimism, like Ishmael actually becoming the bow, feeling hopeful wherever you are. Hold onto the image of the rainbow, to this idea of goodness in the world and you will create a life of goodness for yourselves and ultimately for your loved ones and the wider world. The special riches that you have experienced at Emanuel, you will replicate everywhere.  Because Somewhere over the rainbow way up high

There’s a land that I heard of once in a lullaby.

Year 12: L’chu B’shalom U’bo’u B’shalom, Go in peace and come in peace