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It is Simchat Torah, a time of celebrating and rejoicing on the Jewish calendar, two years to the day from October 7, 2023. Hag Sameach! The surviving hostages are now home; we can breathe and celebrate. Healing begins now.
Today at sunrise at the site of the Nova Festival near Gaza, thousands gathered as Sukkot came to an end echoing the Biblical words “At night there may be weeping, but in the morning, there is joy. (Psalm 30) Or, as we just sang together on Kol Nidre, “Those who sow, will sow in tears, will reap, will reap in joy.” Listen: “When God returns the captives of Zion it will be as in a dream. Our mouths will be filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy…Those who sow in tears will reap in joy.” (Ps. 126)
Our mourning has been turned into dancing and there are tears of joy for the hostages who have finally returned home, even as our hearts ache for the loved ones of the 28 remaining hostages, z”l, still in Gaza (Hamas has only returned four bodies today), and for all those we lost on October 7, 2023, and in the traumatic days since, including so many brave IDF soldiers, first responders and innocent civilians who made the ultimate sacrifice for the Jewish state. The guns of war have been silenced: we have seen too much blood shed and death. Let us be grateful to all who shaped this ceasefire accord and let us pray that it will be a basis for a future peace yet to be born.
Blessed are you, God, Source of Life, who has kept us alive, sustained us in these dark times, and brought us to this precious moment of reunion. Oseh shalom …
Sharing the profound words of Orly Erez-Likhovski of the Israel Religious Action Center, our Reform advocate for justice in Jerusalem, “How do you miss someone you’ve never met? Today, with the release of the last 20 living hostages, my heart overflowed with gratitude with joy, with immense relief that this day has finally come, the day with the hostages we became so deeply connect to, who became part of our lives, are finally returning home.”
In the days when each hour collides with the next,
We have no choice but to cry and to laugh with the same eyes,
To mourn and to dance at the same time.
The long arc of history is compressed into one day and one hour.
We ask for the strength to contain the intensity of our bursting heart:
To rejoice with those who will be able to embrace today,
To enfold all of those leaning into their longing, souls trembling.
To hold onto hope without letting go,
And to leave some quiet space for a silent scream.
Please, grant us the room to shatter into pieces,
And the spirit to be rebuilt anew. (Rabbi Oded Mazor, Kol HaNeshama, Jerusalem)
AM YISRAEL CHAI!
We Stand with the People of Israel and the Jewish People Everywhere!
May the healing now begin …
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