We are, as we have likely heard many times over the past several days, experiencing something unprecedented. From the morning of Shabbat Simchat Torah through this moment events in Israel have crashed into our consciousness, with their still unfolding horrors.
First and foremost, I want to say to each of you: don’t let yourselves be alone. Reach out to join with people who can hold you, literally or virtually, exactly as you are right now. Call or message me. Make use of a free counselling session with Jewish Family Services of Ottawa. To those caring for our children, there is thoughtful guidance available, provided by the director of our Reconstructionist movement summer camp and programs (see below for these resources).
When we gathered together this past Tuesday evening for a shared meal and each others’ company, we sang a few songs before we parted, including this phrase from the liturgy: ufros aleynu sukkat shelomecha – spread over us your shelter of peace. We sing and call out for it though it may feel elusive. Right now, let us together hold up this tent of protection for each other, linking heart and soul to our people everywhere and especially in Israel.
Mima’amakim keraticha – from out of the depths I call, says the Psalmist [130:1]. From the depths of our beings, we call for the safe return of the captives. At Monday night’s Ottawa Jewish community-wide overflowing community-wide gathering at the JCC, a prayer for the hostages was included along with other prayers and psalms, yet for this prayer, there was no slide on the screen with the text – it was so rarely called for in our times that it was not readily found online. I pass along this snapshot only to try to convey to you all that even for us – clergy,
Jewish communal leaders and organizers – this moment is sadly and painfully unearthing tragic elements of our peoples’ history.
A few years ago, when the students and faculty at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College could not gather in person, that spring’s graduating class created a video with two verses from Psalm 30: to you I have called out … please hear me. Elsewhere the psalm acknowledges that we bewail our darkest moments: ba’erev yalin bechi – though you go weeping into the night. May we soon, soon, soon, bring ourselves, and the captives from among our people, back into the morning, into the light, free from sorrow and fear.
