Israel’s Vaccine Triumph

Before old age shalt thou rise; and thou shalt honor the presence of thy elders.
—LEVITICUS

Therefore, choose life, that thou and thy children shall live.
—DEUTERONOMY

‘We have discovered how to hit the Jews where they are the most vulnerable. The Jews love life, so that is what we shall take away from them. We are going to win, because we love death, and they love life.” So proclaimed Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary general of Hezbollah. His pathetic prediction aside, Nasrallah had Jews pegged pretty well; we do love life so. The Hebrew word for life, chayim, is the essence of our aspiration on the High Holy Days: We beseech Almighty God, the melekh chafetz ba-chayim, the king who desires life, to remember us for life, and to write us in the sefer ha-chayim, the book of life. And of course, as many Gentiles (and not a few Jews, alas) learned from Fiddler on the Roof, the traditional toast of Jews at moments of celebration is l’chayim: to life.