Yesterday, 18 Cheshvan, was the yahrzeit of the massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. It has been five years; the Gregorian calendar anniversary is October 27. Until October 7, this attack was at the top of our list of notable yahrzeitn.

Eleven Jews, most of them elderly, were shot to death by a man who declared that he just wanted to kill Jews. Because he did so, synagogues across the country got closer to their kindred institutions in Europe, with armed guards at the locked doors. We’re paying (mostly) non-Jews by the hour to protect us from other non-Jews!

Today, it’s getting to feel as though armed guards at the doors of our shul is not enough. There aren’t enough guards to mind our mezuzot, the flags we choose to fly, our children in high school, our college students, to walk with us through certain neighborhoods, to keep every Jew-hater away from us.

Armed guards don’t solve the underlying problem. They do enable our doing Jewish without needing to be on alert, to look watchfully out the window, to look suspiciously at everyone coming to the door, to scope out our surroundings as we drive up to the shul or walk the block from the car to the JCC entrance.

Despite it all, we will teach joyful Judaism to our children, we will celebrate Jewishly as often as we can, we will repair the vandalism of things such as “Kidnapped” posters and our sense of security in this avowedly pluralistic country. We will attend interfaith peace vigils and interfaith services of thanksgiving. We will continue to hold events of all types in support of Israel.

Friday, at the shore of the Atlantic Ocean, we will be mounting an advocacy for the return of the hostages held by Hamas terrorists. Photos of those kidnapped will be presented on an area of sand behind the Ventnor library and along the adjacent boardwalk from noon to 2:00. There will be a brief anticipation of Shabbat; no speeches from clergy or political figures, though all are welcome, as is the general public.

In the sand we may see God’s promise to the biblical patriarch Avraham, that his descendants will be as innumerable as the sand of the sea. May the hostages — and we — be granted life and wholeness to continue fulfilling that promise.

Another promise made to Avraham was offspring as numerous as the stars that are beyond enumeration. Yesterday, we mourned the extinguishing of eleven of those stars. y’hi zichram baruch; may the memories of their lives bring solace and light to those who knew and loved them.

Shabbat shalom ! שַׁבַּת שָׁלוֹם