This week, a letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu, written by Sir Mick David (formerly UJIA) and Mike Prashker, traditional Jews, is circulating, asking for members of communities to read and consider signing. I share it here for you.
A couple of weeks ago, I signed one written by Masorti Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg. It prayed for this war and untold suffering to end; for young IDF soldiers not to die in a war many Israelis no longer support; for the hope that diplomacy is used once again to bring home the remaining hostages. (The appalling videos last Thursday of Rom Braslavski, thin and crying, and of an emaciated Evyatar David on Saturday only highlight this further.) Of course, the letter also prayed for the suffering, humiliation and death in Gaza to cease – and for us to bear witness to this all. There is so much suffering. I signed it because I, who love Judaism so deeply, felt it essential to protect. I feel deeply the mourning of families in Israel, anguished by the precarious safety and loss of every Israeli soldier following orders. And I am deeply distressed by all that is happening in Gaza and the West Bank. Along with Phil Rosenberg, President of the Board of Deputies, as he said only last week as he visited us, I pray for this to end.
Being rabbi to all our congregation and finding ways to include us all in our distress is so important. Remember those pockets I talked about us carrying – the balance of concerns for everyone at this time?
This week’s portion includes a repetition of the Ten Commandments and introduces the words of the Shema, that would become central to Jewish practice, to teach this love to our children and others’ children. That is what we are doing every day at FPS. We are building a future and hope that holds all our Jewish sensibilities.
Last Rosh Hashanah, I recalled the nineteenth century Jewish bibliographer, Moritz Steinschneider, who died in 1907, thirty years before the Holocaust. Yet when asked why he dedicated his life to cataloguing Jewish books, he offered that devastating answer, ‘to give Judaism a decent burial. He didn’t and nothing has and the glorious pictures of our beloved and restored synagogue on Hutton Grove affirm this love and commitment to the future that we have in our wide ranging congregation. Our return is in sight.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca
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