Shalom,
During my year of mourning for my mother, I attended a daily minyan at my children's day school. My year of mourning coincided with a national tragedy: the massacre on October 7th, and the taking of the hostages by Hamas terrorists. For over 460 days, men and women, both Israeli, American, and different nationalities, babies, children up to seniors, have not seen the light of day in horrific conditions. Every day, we end our prayers by reading a Psalm, and singing Acheinu. As I spoke about during my Rosh Hashanah sermon, I spoke about singing this song, not just at minyan, and at Shaarei Kodesh on Shabbat, but at the Rally for Israel in Washington DC in 2023:
The name of the song is Acheinu—our brethren. The words are old, found in the world’s oldest siddur. It's been recited at different parts of the service. It's just 36 words.
“Our brethren, the whole house of Israel, who are in distress or in captivity — who stand either in the sea or on dry land — may the Omnipresent have mercy on them and take them out from narrowness to expanse, and from darkness to light, and from oppression to redemption, now, swiftly, and soon!”
At its core, the prayer is a plea to God to have mercy on captives and free them, taking them from "narrowness to expanse, and from darkness to light, and from oppression to redemption." It is our story from the darkness of slavery in Egypt, like in the Hagadah when we speak about moving from darkness to light, to the darkness we've seen throughout Jewish history until today. The request is simple: "God, please bring home the captives. Just as our ancestors were redeemed from Egypt, may they journey from darkness to light—right now." The words are old and eternal, but the tune you've heard all year is new. It was written 35 years ago by an Orthodox Jewish musician, Abie Rotenberg. The song was released shortly before the first Gulf War, and Rotenberg noticed it was gaining popularity as people in Israel were buying gas masks, fearing chemical weapons attacks. And here we were, during another dark moment, and yet, I wasn't filled with despair, rather, I was filled with hope.
That hope has sustained us since then until yesterday, 428 days since that first rally. Yesterday, the long awaited hostage deal finally came to fruition.
This week, we begin a new book of the Torah, Shemot or Exodus. The rabbis called this book, "The book of the exodus from Egypt." Our story of slaves gaining their freedom has changed the world for the better.
But as we know, no one is truly free, until all are free.
We know that even now, a deal is not completely guaranteed, but we hope and pray that the hostages return home, and there will be peace.
I am including statements from major Jewish organizations (USCJ, RA, and our local Federation) as well as President Biden's statement in this week's Baum's Branches.
In this week's Baum's Branches, I'm including my words from last week about the fires in Los Angeles, and last Shabbat's Dvar Torah - What If You Were the Last Jew On Earth.
Wishing everyone a Shabbat Shalom, and let's pray for peace together this Shabbat.
Rabbi David Baum
(Read this and more in this week's Baum's Branches)
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