Rabbi's Blog

Shalom,

Many of you know I spent most of this week at Capital Camps for a rabbinic training retreat. I was selected to be a part of a program called CLI (Clergy Leadership Incubator). I will share more about the retreat and the fellowship another time but suffice it to say, it was good to be with a cohort of colleagues in a space where we could both hold the sadness and trauma we were feeling and also work past it to learn, pray and grow together.

We all continue to process the unbelievable atrocity that Hamas carried out against Israel. We also process the impact of the Israeli response on the Israeli people, the military and the civilians of Gaza. The struggle to deal with wickedness is not new. While we enter into Shabbat Noach this week, and will gain insight from that parasha, we also reflect on the last lines of last week’s parasha. Genesis 6:5-6 states: “Adonai saw how great was human wickedness on earth – how every plan devised by the human mind was nothing but evil all the time. Adonai regretted having made humankind on earth and God’s heart was saddened.”

Here, the Torah shares that wickedness is nothing new and that sadness, even by the Divine, is an appropriate reaction. There are many ways that people are dealing with the sadness (and anger and frustration and uncertainty and , and, and). One thing that helps in the face of all this is being helpful and constructive.

Some people have shared with me what they are doing to feel helpful in supporting the Israelis, the Palestinian civilians, and those who are struggling with all the emotions around this. I would like to cull these various outlets into one resource to share with the community. So, if there is an organization you have connected with that is engaged in support, please click here to email me the information.  Also, please let me know if I can cite you as a resource if people are looking for more information.

Look for an email soon with a link to a resource page on our website.

What else can we do?
Like I said, many different groups are doing various things. I know that our local Jewish Day Schools are welcoming in students of Israeli families who have relocated to avoid the dangers of the conflict. Also, a congregant has contacted me about having housing available for up to two adults and two children. These are the kinds of actions we take.

Many, who are on social media, may have seen the next few images but others may not. They are powerful images of what we have lost and what we are hoping for.
First, is an empty lecture hall at Tel Aviv University that is “filled” with those who were killed in the attacks carried out by Hamas. We are strengthened as a community by remembering them.

 

Second, is a picture of a long Shabbat table, set up as a special exhibit of the Tel Aviv Museum, with over 200 seats to represent the hostages that are being held by Hamas. We cannot save places at our Shabbat tables for all of them but we can set a symbolic place for them by leaving an empty chair at our tables. It is another way of us not forgetting them and saving a place for them in our hearts. We pray for their quick release.



As we prepare to start the second Shabbat, since the beginning of this war, we increase our prayers for peace and share the words of Zechariah (paraphrased in song by Debbie Friedman), “Not by might, & not by power, but by spirit alone shall we all live in peace.”
​​​​​​​
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Werbow