No time on the Jewish calendar is more closely associated with simchah, with joy, than the concluding festivals of our High Holy Days season. But there is no joy. There is only ayvel, mourning, an “avel gadol layehudim,” an incalculable mourning for the Jewish people: for our Israeli brothers and sisters, for Jews all over the world, for those beyond the Jewish community who love Israel and the Jewish people.
To our Israeli brothers and sisters, we express the words of Tehilim/Psalms, “Imo anokhi b’tzarah,” “We are with you in your crisis.” It is our crisis.We mourn our dead of unfathomable numbers, the young, the old, men, women, and children who were murdered by barbaric terrorists, and Israel’s courageous soldiers who have fallen in defense of the State of Israel and its people, in defense of all of us wherever we may be, all al kiddush haShem, in sanctification of God’s name. Yehi zikhram barukh. May our memory of them be for a blessing.
We offer nichumim, comfort to the aveilim, our mourners, whose losses are incalculable, whose lives have been inalterably scarred.
We pray for a refuah sheleimah, refuat hanefesh urfuat haguf - a full and speedy recovery for all of the wounded in body and soul.
We long for the ne’edarim, our missing. May they be found. We will not rest until the shevuyim, our abducted, are released and returned to their loving families.
We are grateful for the many beyond the Jewish community who have stood at Israel’s side in its great moment of need.
Dear God, be our partner, as a rofeh holim, a healer of the stricken, a menachem aveilim, a comforter of the mourners, a mattir asurim, a liberator of the captives.
Od lo avdah tikvateinu, our hope is not lost. Lehiyot am chofshi b’artzeinu. We will be a free people in our land. Adonai oz l’amo yitten, God, strengthen your people Israel; Adonai y’varekh et amo vashalom, God, bless your people with shalom, peace.
Please join me in saying Amen.
