Today (November 9th 2014) marks the 25th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. It actually took some time longer, but this is the day that the first part of the wall began to symbolically come down. As a teen I remember President Reagan’s poignant, bold and demanding words: “Mr. Gorbachev… tear down this wall!” and while it was before my time, President JFK’s famous speech “Ich bin ain Berliner” reverberates to this day to all who stand in solidarity with those who stand for freedom.
And today, as every Sunday now, we have the Tefillin Minyan Brunch at Shabbos House. So what’s the connection?
As I wrote on Facebook: “There’s a connection, my friends, there is a connection.” That’s the clue! Berlin was a divided city between East and West. On two sides of one wall, it symbolized the stark differences between the social philosophies and practical realities between the Soviet bloc and the democracies of the West. In the span of a just a few meters were worlds apart, worlds that could not be more different. Connection is what happened with the Fall of the Berlin Wall. The divide was torn away and the city was gradually and eventually reunified.
Our minds and hearts are also two worlds apart. Intellect and emotion are governed by totally different rules and stimulated by very different things. Yet the goal of Tefillin is to put the Tefillin on our heads and near our hearts, to create channels of connection so that they mind can influence the heart, to unify our hearts and minds in the service of our Creator.
P.S. Today November 9th, more importantly for us as the Jewish people, also marks the ominous night of Kristallnacht, the violent night of broken glass in Germany 1938 which foreshadowed the Holocaust. A Tefillin thought? not sure yet.