The haftarah of Shabbat Chol HaMoed Pesach is the Navi Yechezkel’s vision in the Valley of the Dry Bones. (Years in which Pesach begins Motzaei Shabbat, there is no Shabbat Chol HaMoed). In the prophecy, the Navi Yechezkel saw dry bones coming together and being brought back to life. The pinnacle of the prophecy is HASHEM’s instruction to Yechezkel to tell Am Yisrael: “I open your graves and bring you up from your graves and bring you home to the Land of Israel”. The Scroll of Fire, a magnificent sculpture located in the Martyr’s Forest, tells the story of recent Jewish history, from the Shoah (Holocaust) to the establishment of the State of Israel and the reunification of Yerushalayim. The posuk which adorns the sculpture is the posuk quoted above. A recurring theme of the sculpture is the mother and child, who together survive the Holocaust to be privileged to ascend to the Land of Israel and to eat of the fruit of which the Torah praises the Land. The sculpture, the work of the late Natan Yaakov Rapaport, presents a view of Jewish history based upon the sincere belief that it is guided by HASHEM Himself.0
