It’s Our Story
Last week’s Torah reading was mostly the story of Noah and the Flood. One of the more curious elements of the tale is what happens when the earth dries out enough for the animals and their human tenders to exit the vessel.
Bee Juice
My recent posts...After havdala ended last week’s Galeem (“waves,” our Sunday school), the usual joyful mayhem erupted in the lobby: Kids running down halls for a water bottle, a work of art, a lollipop; parents calling after them “Remember your ________!”; brief...
Welcome to”chol”
A couple days of magnificent weather have been a welcome respite from the bounty of precipitation during Sukkot and the closing festival days. This morning, we stored away our sukkah — unscathed by the nor’easter — for next year.
Kol Nidre – All Vows
My recent posts...kol nidrei, all MY vows? Rabbi Jonathan Kremer kol nidrei, all vows. ALL vows? All my vows? How can I possibly remember them all? Those silent frustrations: I swear I could... I said what? Well, I didn't mean it that way! The thick-as-mud silent...
843 Days
Ran Gvili, an Israeli police officer, was killed by Hamas terrorists who invaded Israel on October 7, 2023. His body was taken into Gaza to be used as a pawn in the terrorists’ anticipated negotiations with Israel and as a tool for waging psychological warfare upon Israel.
The last of the living hostages were released on day number 738. Gvili’s remains were the last recovered of those who killed in captivity or who were taken already dead. 843 days after his death, Israeli forces repatriated his body for a proper burial.
According to the Times of Israel, some 250 bodies were exhumed from a Muslim cemetery in Gaza and matched with dental records and/or fingerprints. “The IDF said it would be returning all of the other exhumed bodies to their graves and cleaning up the cemetery, out of respect for the dead.”
At kiddush lunch on Shabbat I had a conversation with a congregant about the “hostage dog tags” Ellie and I had been wearing since February 2024. (The number/s were updated daily.) She had stopped wearing hers when the living hostages returned; most Israelis had done the same. We shared stories of those tags eliciting expressions of solidarity on city streets, in airports and elsewhere.
What now? Will a tzitzit-wearing young man ever again catch my eye, stop loading his luggage into a shuttle and bring his hand to his heart? At a recent interfaith event, the imam of a local mosque engaged me in conversation about the dog tags. Our daughters made sure we’d heard of Gvili’s retrieval, and asked if we had retired our tags.
What now? Do I adopt a different sign of support for Israel, a public statement of being a proud Zionist?
What now? Does the Israeli protesting public now turn its full attention to other challenges such as the West Bank, Haredi draft, housing affordability, the Knesset and international relations. (For such a small country…!)
We hope to never again need to sing “Acheinu,” that haunting and, unfortunately, timeless 9th-century prayer for Jews in dire straits. We hope that the aspiration to peace and prosperity overcome the cult of murder and martyrdom.
For the souls of the dead we wish eternal rest, and, for the living, healing of the heart.