From the Rabbi's Desk

The book of שמות / Exodus has 11 portions in it and the book of בראשית / Genesis has 12 which means between the two of them is 23 פרשיות/portions. This also means we’ve gathered for שבת / Shabbat 23 times since October 7th as of this coming שבת. That’s an insane number and what it means is it’s been 23 weeks since over 1,200 lives were stolen from our world at the hands of bigoted terrorists. It means it’s been 23 weeks since 130 captives have been home for שבת/Shabbat. The latest info we have on the captives as reported by I24 is: Among the 130 October 7 abductees, there are 111 men and 19 women. The number includes two children under the age of 5. In terms of nationalities, there are 119 Israelis and 11 foreigners: eight citizens of Thailand, one of Nepal, one of Tanzania, and one each from France and Mexico. Hamas is believed to have kept bodies of 31 abductees believed dead, including the late Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul. We have read 23 תורה readings since this disaster began, and to be honest, we don’t seem any closer to the end than we did at the beginning.
 
On Sunday night, the great foreign policy experts and the eternally and supremely moral group called Hollywood (please read in the sarcastic way this was intended) celebrated themselves with the annual Oscars Awards Ceremony. Numerous stars chose to ignore the hatred and bigotry of Hamas. Numerous chose to look the other way when women were viciously raped and had their bodies mutilated (not to mention the women still in captivity and still being exposed to such immoral and abusive treatment). These Hollywood stars chose to ignore the real threat that a Western Democracy faces at the hands of a barbaric terrorist group and instead demonized the victim defending itself. That’s what it means to state “Cease Fire Now.” But they were not unique as last week the President of the United States was forced to alter his motorcade route to the US Capitol where he was due to deliver a speech that is sanctioned by the Constitution of the United States… this rerouting was due to people who were demanding said "Cease Fire Now". And of course, during the speech we saw on full display a minority of elected officials who held up signs calling for that cease fire.
 
Friends, I want a cease fire. I want to see Israelis living in security and in peace. I want to see the soldiers come home to resume their lives. I want to see the world come back to visit all of the incredible sites in Israel. I also want to see security and prosperity for the Palestinians in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and I want them to have safety. We can have an immediate cease fire and all it takes is handing over 130 hostages and Hamas leaving Gaza or turning themselves in. Any demand of a cease fire that calls on Israel to stop pursuing Hamas and accept them is not a cease fire… it’s kicking the can down the road and assuring Israelis continue living in terror. Any cease fire that allows Hamas to hold onto the innocent Israeli captives is not moral. It’s called enabling terror.  
We’ve read 23 פרשיות since this awfulness began. We’ve spent 23 שבתs concerned and in pain. The sad reality is that until Hamas accepts it cannot murder, rape and kidnap its way into legitimacy, we will not be able to read another פרשה without this war. I pray the US and the Israelis are able to help alleviate the suffering of the citizens of Gaza who aren’t linked to Hamas in any way. I pray for this because it’s the humane and moral thing to do. I pray for this because we have an obligation to fight, not at their level, but at a much higher and holier level which is one that calls on us to protect the innocent to the best of our abilities. As the משכן / Tabernacle was being completed in this week’s פרשה: פקודי / Pekudei we learn again about the special headpiece the כהן גדול/High Priest would wear that said קודש לה' / Holy to God on it. This was worn by the כהן גדול as he was our representative and as such that special headpiece was symbolic of all of us. Every Jew is holy to God and needs to see him/herself as being such. At the same time, there’s an undertone in Jewish tradition that acknowledges all of humanity is sacred because all of humanity contains a piece of God inside from having been made in God’s image. When engaging in war, we’re obliged to see ourselves as Divine creations that each contain a piece of Divinity within. We also need to see the innocents on the other side as being made in the Divine image.

On שבת morning, we’ll celebrate our Sisterhood and will complete the book of שמות / Exodus. As we complete the reading, we’ll stand and recite "חזק חזק ונתחזק" / Be Strong Be Strong and We will be Strengthened… We need strength. We need courage. We need love. We need passion. We need fortitude. We need to keep our eyes on the goal of securing our homeland and our people. We need to listen and recognize we need to do all we can to help with humanitarian aid. We need to stay the course and we need to recognize this was never going to be easy. There’s a great deal of noise out there that’s trying to take away our strength (some even from our people who claim to speak with authority on our behalf, yeah that’s you Hollywood) and we must not let them take our strength. It’s through our strength that we’ll build more and more and become strengthened morally and physically. Our unity is so important and we must not allow for the noise of our detractors to take that from us since we need it now more than ever.