Saturday eve Oct 7
Good evening everyone. Thank you for being here tonight.
Several hundred of us were right here last night, singing and dancing with the Torah scroll, celebrating together the conclusion and beginning again our eternal cycle of reading of the Torah. Our elderly, our kindergartners, a big group of young parents with their new babies, our seventh and eighth graders. Our joy was intense, and our hearts were full of gratitude and hope for the future.
Twenty four hours later, we have come back to the same spot ….together with leaders and members of our entire Santa Barbara Jewish Community….and our hearts are bursting with a different set of emotions. Fear. Grief. Anger. Even hatred. So much has changed, overnight.
We come tonight, each of us with our own private thoughts, and fears and anger. We come to be together with our friends, with our family, with our community. And to speak openly of our profound connection to our family in Israel.
We weep for over 700 [note: eventually we learned it was 1,400] of our sisters and brothers in Israel, young and old, who died today, terrible, violent deaths….and for their devastated families. We pray for their families, that they may eventually find comfort, among all of the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.
We grieve for the injured, 2,200 so far, and pray for their healing, refuah shleimah min hashamayim, a speedy and complete healing from heaven.
We tremble tonight, in terror, with the 100 hostages [note: eventually we learned it was 229]who have been torn from their homes and families, and taken into captivity by the evil Hamas regime. We pray, with all our might, for their lives, and for their safe return home.
We grieve, also, for the innocent women, men and children of Gaza who have died and who will die as a result of Hamas’ attack on Israel. They do not love us; they may hate us. But tonight they are shivering in terror, and grieving their dead, like us. It does no harm to us, nor to Israel, to join our grief to theirs, and it may offer a slender ray of hope for a peaceful future. That future feels very distant right now, but we still believe in it.
From what I understand, the leaders of the political opposition in Israel are joining together with Prime Minister Netanyahu to form an emergency unity government to meet the challenges of this moment. That is good news.
Let us follow their example. We come together tonight as one community, in grief, in love, and in support of our family in Israel, in their hour of need.
Our prayer tonight is the same prayer we have offered for three thousand years.
Adonai oz l’amo yiten; Adonai y’varech et amo v’shalom.
God will give strength to this people;
God will bless this people with peace.