Study #14: YOD

YOD AS IN YAD ( HAND ) #2

The Children Museum at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem records the murder of 1.5 million Jewish children by the Nazis during WW2.

Outside this Museum is this monumental statue of Dr. Janucz Korcazk ( 1872 -1942 ), a Polish doctor and author of childrens’ books, leading all the Jewish orphans in his orphanage to the trains that brought them to the death camp of Treblenka for extermination. He went with them into the gas chamber.

I always leave a stone on his giant hand instead of a flower. According to Jewish custom, such stones are stones of remembrance for the dead. But if you look closer, the giant hand comes from nowhere…

Father God, Your Hand heals, protects and guards Your children. But so many do not see it when death is imminent. “Where are You God?” they ask in their pain, sorrow, sickness, isolation, despair, depression…But this statue of this faithful doctor reminds us of Your presence in life as in death. The last time I visited his statue, I saw more stones in his honour. Help me never to forget the YAD of Your Everlasting Arms!