TORONTO — Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb delivered a pointed message about Jewish unity to a sanctuary full of people gathered for Mizrachi Canada’s annual Yom Hazikaron/Yom Ha’atzmaut program last week at Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto Congregation in Thornhill.

The executive vice-president of the Orthodox Union, who has a PhD in psychology, said that just as Jews transition from the darkness of Yom Hazikaron, the memorial day for fallen soldiers, to the light of Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day, we must transition from “a darkness within us…  that is eating away at the soul of the Jewish people.”

Discord, despair and cynicism – which he described as “three monsters” – are “crippling us as a nation, as local communities, and as individual Jews,” said Rabbi Weinreb.

He referred to gaps between religious and secular Jews, right-wing and left-wing Jews, chassidim of differing factions, and those who wear one colour kippah and those who wear a different one.

“It is a poison that eats away at us body and soul.”

Rabbi Weinreb believes the Jewish community has become pessimistic. “Where is a prophet today who gives a hopeful message for the Jewish future?” he asked.

Cynicism, Rabbi Weinreb said, is at the core of the difficulties. “When we see the accomplishments of others, particularly of a different shade of religiosity than ours, we say, ‘So what? I’m not impressed.’

“Yom Ha’atzmaut, particularly this 60th [one], gives us the opportunity to grab these three monsters, to slay these three dragons, and to transform the discord into unity and harmony, the despair into hope, and the cynicism into idealism and dreaming again.”

Rabbi Weinreb said that Ahavat Yisrael – love of one’s fellow Jew – is commonly espoused but rarely practised, “especially when the going is tough, or when the person is different.

“Harmony – at least, tolerance – is a goal we must achieve.”

He urged people to see the beauty of others’ accomplishments “even if we don’t understand that beauty,” and to not forget “the dreams of our grandmothers… the pushkes that helped build the land of Israel.

“Let us not become cynical, no matter who are our leaders,” he said. “We must continue to dream. We must reverse discord with unity, despair with hope and cynicism with dreams of the future.”

The event, which was followed by celebratory dancing in the synagogue’s social hall, also included prayers, a medley of Israeli music, and remarks from Amir Gissin, Israel’s consul general in Toronto; Solly Sacks, director of World Mizrachi; and Rabbi Baruch Taub, spiritual leader of the synagogue.