סוף סוף בשורות טובות
GREAT NEWS AT LAST
On this morning of homecoming, as we greet living hostages whom we, perhaps, never dared to dream would return, let us follow the Sages’ teaching [Berakhot 58b]:
אָמַר רַבִּי יְהוֹשֻׁעַ בֶּן לֵוִי: הָרוֹאֶה אֶת חֲבֵירוֹ לְאַחַר שְׁנֵים עָשָׂר חֹדֶשׁ, אוֹמֵר: בָּרוּךְ מְחַיֵּה הַמֵּתִים. Said R. Joshua b. Levi: One who sees a friend after 12 months of absence should recite: Blessed is the Lord, Master of the world, who revives the dead!
As we welcome the Berman twins of Kibbutz Kfar Azza, the Cunio brothers of Kibbutz Nir Oz, Matan Zangauker, whose mother, Einav, became the face of every agonized family, as we welcome them all, down to the last one, עד החטוף האחרון, after 737 dark days – today is a profoundly life-affirming moment.
On this morning of homecoming, as we await coffins of Israeli soldiers and civilians killed on October 7 and during months of captivity – including Omer Neutra who grew up on Long Island, Muhammad al-Atrash, an Israeli Bedouin soldier, killed fighting Hamas, and Inbar Heyman, murdered at the Nova festival, the only woman still held by Hamas – let us also follow a different but parallel guidance recorded on that very same page of Talmud:
When one sees Jewish graves … Mar son of Ravina said in the name of R. Nachman, one should recite: God knows each and every one of you and one day will revive you and care for you. Blessed is the Lord, Master of the world, who revives the dead.
What a paradox: Two diametrically opposed experiences – greeting the living and visiting the dead – warrant the identical blessing. Though the tone is vastly different, in both cases, we bless the ultimate force of life over death. In this suffering world, sometimes our long-lost dear ones come back – that deserves a blessing. And we look forward to a redeemed world to come without all this loss – and that deserves a blessing too. Let us bless the God of our Jewish faith, who calls us [Deuteronomy 30.19] to “choose life” amidst all the struggles that can beset us, and who also, we dream, one day “will swallow up death forever and dry all the tears off our cheeks [Isaiah 25.8].”
This polarity speaks to me today, as Israelis and Jews around the world celebrate and mourn. I am euphoric for those returning to their families’ embrace, beginning their journey to renewed life. As I write this, late Sunday night, I’m watching video of the sun dawning in Hostage Square in Tel Aviv on Monday morning, where throngs of Israelis, suffused with ahavat Israel, love for their fellow Jews, sing and dance, cathartically emerging from all their agony. I’m listening to interviews of parents driving to Kibbutz Re’im, the site of the Nova Festival, to meet their newly liberated children in only a few minutes more. Blessed is the One who revives the dead!
And for those whom we failed to protect, those we failed to bring home, for all the suffering of so many families over these last two years, today stamps our broken hearts and intensifies our longing for a better world. Blessed is the One who one day will revive the dead to the better life they deserve.
At Shmini Atzeret services on Tuesday, I will recite this blessing twice, for the living and the dead, exactly two years on the Jewish calendar since that black Shabbat.
I speak as a Jew, with a commitment to my people as deep as the ocean, celebrating our brothers who return to life, and weeping for those who come in body bags. For all our pain, let our Jewish commitment never blind us to the incalculable suffering of Palestinians. Thank God the cannons are silent today, and may they remain that way. Today is only the beginning of the next, much more difficult phase. Its conclusion will be attained only when everyone in the Holy Land can live as every child of God deserves. Let us use whatever resources we possess to build a better future than our horrible present.
Like every Jewish community, Ansche Chesed will mark an ambivalent Shmini Atzeret and Simchat Torah over the next two days. As Rachel Goldberg-Polin, mother of the murdered Hirsch z’l (and cousin to our member Burt Vizotsky), said at the Jerusalem rally on Saturday night, we must now live all the polar times of Ecclesiastes chapter 3 in a single moment. For the Jewish people, this is a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, all at once.
On this day of joy, we do well to pay attention to the notes of sorrow. The return of 20 precious living hostages is not enough. But it’s close.
For two years, it has become common in Israel, when asked “how are you,” to respond with the poet Hayim Gouri’s famous line: שְׁלוֹמִי כְּשָׁלוֹם עַמִּי, “I am only as well as my people.” Today, for the first time in 738 days, that’s pretty great.
Besorot Tovot — Good News!
