Today is Veterans Day but I’m working. My grandfather, though I never met him, fought in World War I, a war so far away that it almost seems like the 3rd century. Yet, Veterans Day began with Armistice Day as a commemoration of the end of WWI on November 11, 1918. The end of WWI, with about 10 million dead in Europe and the Middle East, must have been a very good day indeed. The “holiday” has been with us Americans ever since and has gone through numerous transformations.
It’s amazing to me that Veterans Day, or some kind of war casualty recognition day, is not more important to folks. War has taken perhaps 100 million lives, most of them non-soldiers, in the last century and yet here we are, on Veterans Day, thankless for what we have and unknowing of what others fought for, good and bad.
In this week’s Torah portion, I came across a prayer that seems relevant: Yehi shalom, b’haylekh shalvah, b’armenotayikh. It means: Let there be peace within your walls, serenity within your castles.