Rabbi Tracy Kaplowitz reflects on her week in Israel at the head of a delegation of nine early-career rabbis during the war with Hamas. Her time there included meeting with Israelis experiencing distress and uncertainty. But there was also hope…
“Celebrating Thanksgiving may seem a bit tone-deaf when so many are suffering,” says Rabbi Samantha Natov, but “as Jews, we are often asked to celebrate the goodness of our lot at the same time we remember the many in need that we are obligated to help. We carry those opposing realities at the same time…”
Rabbi Dalia Samansky reflects on how rallying for Israel in Washington helped to “heal our heartbreak, lessen our loneliness, and diffuse our desolation…” She says, “Standing on the national mall in a sea of white and blue, with Israeli flags proudly waving, and chants of ‘Am Yisrael chai,’ one couldn’t help but to feel hopeful for the future of the Jewish people.”
“How do I continue living?” Rebecca asked in excruciating pain as her twins battled within her womb. We ask ourselves the same question today, while battling the trauma, loss and antisemitism around us. But “we cannot fight hate with hate,” answers Rabbi Samantha Natov. “Only light can pierce through darkness.”
“There is a three-year-old girl named Avigail in the Gaza dungeons. Whenever I think of her, I am devastated,” says Rabbi Ammi Hirsch. “How did it come to this — this visceral rage on campus and in the streets of America that seems impenetrable to reason?” he asks. “It has been germinating for a long time — fed by extremist ideas, nourished by radical teachers, and tolerated by cowardly administrators…”
Rabbi Rena Rifkin wonders how we can be grateful for being Jewish “when we are tucking our magen David necklaces into our T-shirts, using fake last names on our uber accounts and even taking down mezuzot from our front doors…” Although we have every right to be scared, “we must fight back the fear and fight for the joy” that Judaism offers us each day.
