Holidays From October 7 to Simchat Torah 5785

Today we share the first in a series of reflections. This passage is called Signs of Life, and was written by Israeli author, Etgar Keret for a young girl whose father had been killed on October 7.

“Now close your eyes and try to stop being angry. Try to stop raging at all those who deserve your righteous fury. Close your eyes, and allow yourself, just for a moment, to simply feel the pain, to hesitate, to be confused, to feel sorrow, remorse. You still have your whole life to spend persecuting, avenging, reckoning. But for now, just close your eyes and look inward like a satellite hovering over a disaster zone searching for signs of life. A lot has been taken away from you, but you’re still a human being. Wounded, bloodied, angry, hurting, frightened, drowning in sorrow, but still: human. Take a deep breath, and try to remember the feeling because you know that a minute from now, when you open your eyes again, it will be gone.”

Today we share the second in a series of reflections for the days between October 7 and Simchat Torah.

After the Hamas massacres in Southern Israel, tens of thousands of survivors were evacuated to hotels in other parts of the country. Israeli kindergarten teacher, Avital Liman, went to the Dead Sea to volunteer with evacuated children. She wrote this poem about a conversation with a child there. [Translation by Michael Bohnen, Heather Silverman, Rachel Korazim.]

We share it with hearts breaking for all the children whose lives have been lost or forever altered since the attacks of October 7, 2023.

“Nowadays One Has to Check”
By Avital Liman

In the evacuees’ hotel
By the Dead Sea
She carefully gathers
The doll’s hair with a ribbon
She attaches a sparkling pipe cleaner
To the ribbon.
And then she asks: “Tell me, am I alive?
And how would they know if I were dead?” What would you say
to a four-year old girl?
“Only the living can hug.
Come, let’s hug and see if
We’re alive.”
Later she says:
“Tomorrow morning let’s check again.”

עכשיו צריך לבדוק
אביטל לימן

 בִּמְלוֹן הַמְּפֻנִּים
בְּיַם הַמֶּלַח
הִיא אוֹסֶפֶת יָפֶה יָפֶה
,אֶת שְׂעַר הַבֻּבָּה בַּסֶּרֶט
קוֹשֶׁרֶת מִמְּנַקֵּה מִקְטָרוֹת מְנַצְנֵץ
,עַל הַסֶּרֶט
?וְאָז שׁוֹאֶלֶת: “תַּגִּידִי, אֲנִי חַיָּה
“?וְאֵיךְ יוֹדְעִים שֶׁאֲנִי מֵתָה
מָה הֲיִיתֶם עוֹנִים
?לַיַּלְדָּה בַּת אַרְבַּע
.רַק מִי שֶׁחַי יָכֹל לְהִתְחַבֵּק”
בּוֹאִי נִתְחַבֵּק וְנִרְאֶה אִם
.”אֲנַחְנוּ בַּחַיִּים
:אַחַר כָּךְ הִיא אוֹמֶרֶת
“גַּם מָחָר בַּבֹּקֶר נִבְדֹּק”

Today we share the third in a series of reflections for the days between October 7 and Simchat Torah.

We share this prayer on behalf of the hostages still being held captive since the attacks of October 7, 2023. We will not forget them, and we will not let the world forget them, as we continue to pray for their swift and safe return home.

Prayer for Those Being Held in Captivity

May the Holy One who blessed our ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah; bless, protect and guard our missing brothers and sisters who are in distress and captivity. May the Holy Compassionate One, bring them out of darkness and the shadow of death; may God break their bonds, deliver them from their distress, and bring them swiftly back to their families’ embrace. May there be fulfilled in them the verse: “Those redeemed by God will return; they will enter Zion with singing, and everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.”

And let us say: Amen.

מִי שֶׁבֵּרַךְ אֲבוֹתֵינוּ אַבְרָהָם יִצְחָק וְיַעֲקֹב, וְאִמּוֹתֵינוּ שָׂרָה רִבְקָה רָחֵל וְלֵאָה, הוּא יְבָרֵךְ וְיִשְׁמֹר וְיִנְצֹר אֶת כָּל אַחֵינוּ וְאֲחְיוֹתֵינוּ הַנֶעְדָרִים הַנְּתוּנִים בְּצָרָה וּבְשִׁבְיָה. הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא יִמָּלֵא רַחֲמִים עֲלֵיהֶם, וְיוֹצִיאֵם מֵחֹשֶׁךְ וְצַלְמָוֶת, וּמוֹסְרוֹתֵיהֶם יְנַתֵּק, וּמִמְּצוּקוֹתֵיהֶם יוֹשִׁיעֵם, וִישִׁיבֵם מְהֵרָה לְחֵיק מִשְׁפְּחוֹתֵיהֶם. וִיקֻיַּם
,בָּהֶם מִקְרָא שֶׁכָּתוּב: וּפְדוּיֵי ה׳ יְשֻׁבוּן, וּבָאוּ צִיּוֹן בְּרִנָּה, וְשִׂמְחַת עוֹלָם עַל־רֹאשָׁם, שָׂשׂוֹן וְשִׂמְחָה יַשִׂיגוּ

וְנָסוּ יָגוֹן וַאֲנָחָה: וְנֹאמַר אָמֵן

Today we share the fourth in our series of reflections for these days between October 7 and Simchat Torah.

As we gather in prayer during these Days of Awe, many of us in the global Jewish community are searching for language to speak to the sense of loss, hopelessness, and heartbreak that we have felt over the past year. This interpretive version of El Malei Rachamim, written by Hebrew College president, Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld, is a prayer for all the innocents who have lost their lives in the devastating violence of the past year. In the words of the High Holiday piyyut, “May the past year and its curses come to an end, may the new year and its blessings begin.”

El Maleh Rachamim
By Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld

אל מלא רחמים
God full of mercy,
Womb of the world,
In whom there is room enough
for all life to flourish
From whom there is blessing enough
For all life to be nourished –

We call out to You,
broken-hearted.

שוכן במרומים
You who dwell on High
Beyond the borders of loyalty and love
that make us human —
Hearing what we cannot
Holding what we cannot
Healing what we cannot —
Help us.

המצא מנוחה נכונה
תחת כנפי השכינה
Grant perfect rest
Beneath the wings of Your Presence
To the precious innocent souls —
Israeli and Palestinian,
Jewish and Muslim,
Christian, Bedouin, and Druze,
migrant workers from around the world —
Who have lost their lives
to the ravages of war
during this past year

Shelter those who witnessed
unspeakable brutality
And whose walls could not protect them.
Carry those who were caught or cornered,
unable to escape
destruction, degradation, despair.
Lift up those who searched
for sustenance or safety,
longing for the embrace of home.

במעלות קדושים וטהורים
כזוהר הרקיע מזהירים
May those souls
who are with you now
be granted a glimpse of the world
as You see it —
shimmering everywhere
with the light of Your presence.

בגן עדן תהא מנוחתם
May they find rest and comfort
In Your holy Garden.

אנא בעל הרחמים
Please, O Master of Mercy

הסתיריהם בסתר כנפיך לעולמים
וצרור בצרור החיים את נשמותיהם
Hide them
beneath the cover of Your wings, forever,
And let their souls be bound up with ours,
Summoning us all to righteousness
And hope renewed.

יי הוא נחלתם
וינוחו בשלום על משכבם
May Your unending love be their inheritance.
May their eternal resting place be Your peace.
And let us say: Amen.

Today we share the fifth in a series of reflections for the days between October 7 and Simchat Torah.

We share this the prayer, “Let Us Light Candles for Peace” written by two brave mothers, Sheikha Ibtisam Maḥameed & Rabbi Tamar Elad-Appelbaum. R. Tamar Elad-Appelbaum is the founder and spiritual leader of Kehilat Zion in Jerusalem, and the Director of the Rabbanut Yisraelit Network and Co-Director of the Shalom Hartman Institute’s Center for Ritual. Sheikha Ibtisam Maḥameed is a Palestinian, living in northern Israel, whose primary focus is on improving relations between Jews and Arabs in Israel and working to improve the status of women in both Arab and Jewish society.

Their cry for peace and light in this time of darkness and pain is particularly resonant on this eve of Shabbat and of Yom Kippur, Shabbat Shabbaton, as we yearn for the end of war and division and pray for a better year ahead.

Let Us Light Candles for Peace | تعالوا نضيئ شمعات السلام | בואו נאיר נרות שלום
By S. Ibtisam Mahameed & R. Tamar Elad-Appelbaum
(translation by R. Amichi Lau-Lavie)

Let us light candles for peace.
Two mothers, one plea:
Now, more than ever, during these days of so much crying,
on the day that is sacred to both our religions, Friday, Sabbath Eve
Let us light a candle in every home — for peace:
A candle to illuminate our future, face to face,
A candle across borders, beyond fear.
From our family homes and houses of worship
Let us light each other up,
Let these candles be a lighthouse to our spirit
Until we all arrive at the sanctuary of peace.

Today we share the sixth in a series of reflections for the days between October 7 and Simchat Torah.

We share a musical version of Psalm 23 sung by Hebrew College ordination students, Aviva and Julia, who are in Israel for their year of study. Psalm 23 invites us to think about the peaks and valleys of life as components of one, ultimately redemptive, journey. At this time when our hearts are raw reflecting on the October 7 attacks, we hope the text and melody resonate deeply for you and offer comfort.

Psalm 23:4

Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I fear no evil, for You are with me.
גַּם כִּי-אֵלֵךְ
בְּגֵיא צַלְמָוֶת
לֹא-אִירָא רָע
כִּי-אַתָּה עִמָּדִי

Visit Hebrew College’s interreligious psalms site, The Book of Psalms: Calling Out from the Depths, to explore psalm 23.

Today we share the seventh in a series of reflections for the days between October 7 and Simchat Torah.

We share the video “Partners in Fate” created by the Israeli organization, Have You Seen the Horizon Lately? The brief video documents the heroic efforts of four Arab citizens of Israel from the Bedouin city of Rahat to rescue Jews from the massacres at Kibbutz Be’eri and the Nova Festival on October 7. Out of the horrible darkness of these attacks, these partners in fate show us there are shreds of light in the form of heroic stories of rescue and shared humanity.

Today we share the eighth in a series of reflections for the days between October 7 and Simchat Torah.

We share part of a poem called “A Man in His Life” by Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai z”l. The poem begins by challenging the conventional wisdom of Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) who taught, “There is a time for every purpose under heaven.” Marion Gribetz, beloved and longtime faculty member in Hebrew College’s Jewish Education program offers a poignant reflection on Amichai’s poem as we prepare to read the Book of Kohelet this coming Shabbat, during the festival of Sukkot.

This year, Yehuda Amichai’s response to Kohelet feels deeply resonant:

“A man doesn’t have time in his life
to have a time for everything.
He doesn’t have seasons enough to have
a season for every purpose. Ecclesiastes
was wrong about that.

A man needs to love and to hate at the same moment,
to laugh and to cry with the same eyes,
with the same hands to throw stones and to gather them,
to make love in war and war in love.
And to hate and forgive and remember and forget,
to arrange and confuse, to eat and to digest
what history
takes years upon years to do.” (Y. Amichai)

We learn from Amichai’s take on Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) that there really IS NOT a season for everything. We live with our seasons all tumbled together. If we have learned nothing else from this year of tragedy, heart break, confusion, and disillusionment, we have learned without doubt that there is no time for those emotions without the intercession of the emotions of joy, happiness, love, and appreciation. There is no alternative to survival in times of complete chaos.

As we enter this festival of Sukkot, may we give thanks and take a moment to acknowledge the beauty around us, the privileges that we have, the blessings of family and dear friends.

May this be a year full of more blessings than curses, and may it be a year in which we savor the blessings of health, peace, and well-being.

Marion Gribetz
Director, Congregational Education Initiative
Hebrew College Graduate Education Program

Today we share the fifth in a series of reflections for the days between October 7 and Simchat Torah.

We share this Prayer by Melila Hellner-Eshed, Ph.D., Research Fellow of the Kogod Research Center at Shalom Hartman Institute. For the past three decades, she has been a central figure in the Israeli renaissance of study of Jewish texts by Israeli adults of all paths of life in various frameworks. This Prayer is part of her collection “Words from the Midst of Turmoil: Responding to Devastation” curated for the one year anniversary of the attacks on October 7, 2023.

Prayer
By Melila Hellner-Eshed

God of the spirit of all flesh,
Here we are before You, broken
spirits, torn by grief;
have mercy on us, mortals created in
your Image.
Watch over us in a time of
destruction and tragedy, terror,
death and panic.
Please, please:
may our compassion be revealed,
may the love within us
overwhelm the harsh judgment,
vengeance and evil within us.
Behold: fierce, burning pain cries out,
seeking revenge, not comfort.
Watch over us, Shekhinah, our
strength,
over our scorched spirits, our
terrified souls,
over our completely infuriated flesh.
May the Divine Image rise, shining
like the dawn,
from our crushed hearts.
May we have faith that we will merit
to witness the goodness of the Holy
One,
the goodness of humankind,
in the land of the living.
Amen

תְפִלָה
מלילה הלנר-אשד

אֵל אֱלֹהֵי הָרוּחוֹת לְכָל בָּשָׂר
הִנֵּה אָנוּ לְפָנֶיךָ רוּחוֹת קְרוּעוֹת וְסוֹעוֹת מִצַּעַר
,חֲמֹל נָא עָלֵינוּ, בְּנֵי הָאָדָם, הַבְּרוּאִים בְּצַלְמְךָ
בִּפְקֹד אוֹתָנוּ עֵת שֶׁבֶר וְצָרָה, אֵימָה, מָוֶת וּבֶהָלָה
יִגוֹלוּ נָא, אָנָּא, אָנָּא רַחֲמֵינוּ וְהָאַהֲבָה שֶׁבָּנוּ
.עַל מִדּוֹת הַדִּין, הַנְּקָמָה וְהָרֹעַ שֶׁבָּנוּ
שֶׁהִנֵּה בָּא הַכְּאֵב הָעַז וְהַבּוֹעֵר הַצּוֹעֵק וּמְבַקֵּשׁ
.נְקָמָה וְלֹא נֶחָמָה
,שִׁמְרִי עָלֵינוּ שְׁכִינַת עֻזֵּנוּ
,עַל רוּחוֹתֵינוּ הַצְּרוּבוֹת, נִשְׁמוֹתֵינוּ הַמְּבֹהָלוֹת
עַל בְּשָׂרֵנוּ שֶׁנַּעֲשָׂה כֻּלּוֹ חִדּוּדִין
לְמַעַן יַעֲלֶה כַּשַּׁחַר וְיִזְרַח צֶלֶם אֱלֹהִים מִלִּבֵּנוּ
.הַמְּרֻסָּק
וְנַאֲמִין שֶׁעוֹד נִזְכֶּה
וְנִרְאֶה בְּטוּב ה’ וְטוּב הָאָדָם
.בְּאֶרֶץ חַיִּים
אָמֵן

Today we offer the tenth in a series of poems, reflections, and prayers for the days between October 7 and Simchat Torah.

With gratitude, we share an excerpt from a prayer for the anniversary of October 7 by Hebrew College Rabbinical School student Talia Young. May her words open our hearts to hope, healing, and courage during these difficult days.

God who answers us with expansiveness, open our hearts to hold all this grief, grief that is our own and the grief of others. May our hearts be many chambered rooms, big enough to hold hope too, and even joy somehow. May the memories of everyone we have lost be a blessing. May the courage of the living be a light for us, the families who have fought through their grief for the return of those in captivity and an end to the war. May every small act of kindness be a seed in a field we all are planting together that we one day harvest in joy. May we be among those who are brave and kind, tender and awake. May we have the courage to listen to each other and speak up for justice now. May our broken hearts and all this shattering open the possibility for a new way of being, for peace in the Holy land and in the whole world. May we be tender with all we do not know, may we not know our way into a different world. May we reach for each other in our grief, may we be a source of healing for each other. May we see different days. May we know peace in our world, in our bodies, in each breath, so that nothing terrifies us. May our love be larger than our fear, our רחמים greater than our דין. For you are a God who split the sea for us, when we could not see another path forward. Open for us a way forward now, a path beyond the hurt and violence to love and safety and peace, now, speedily, and in our days.
Please God fulfill for us the verse:

וְכִתְּתוּ חַרְבוֹתָם לְאִתִּים וַחֲנִיתוֹתֵיהֶם לְמַזְמֵרוֹת לֹא יִשָּׂא גוֹי אֶל גּוֹי חֶרֶב וְלֹא יִלְמְדוּ עוֹד מִלְחָמָה

And they shall beat their swords into plowshares
And their spears into pruning hooks:
Nation shall not take up
Sword against nation;
They shall never again know war.

עוֹשֶׂה שָׁלוֹם בִּמְרוֹמָיו הוּא יַעֲשֶׂה שָׁלוֹם עָלֵינוּ וְעַל כָּל יִשְׂרָאֵל וְעַל כָּל יוֹשְׁבֵי תֵבֵל ואמרו אמן

May the one who makes peace on high make peace for us, for all of Israel and all who dwell on Earth. And let us say: Amen.

Today we share the final offering in our series of reflections for the days between October 7 and Simchat Torah.

We share Hebrew College Rabbinical School student Yitzi Gittelsohn’s musical version of Psalm 23:6, “goodness and kindness will pursue me all the days of my life” along with this list of all those we lost on October 7, 2023. As we move into the last days of this sacred season, and the Hebrew anniversary of the Hamas massacres last year on Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah, we hope this music is a comfort and a call to the possibility of better days ahead. May we choose to fill the days we are given with acts of goodness and kindness.

If you would like to view all of the offerings in this series, please visit our website here. Thank you for sharing this journey with us.

Psalm 23:6

אַ֤ךְ ׀ ט֤וֹב וָחֶ֣סֶד יִ֭רְדְּפוּנִי כָל־יְמֵ֣י חַיָּ֑י וְשַׁבְתִּ֥י בְּבֵית־יְ֝הֹוָ֗ה לְאֹ֣רֶךְ יָמִֽים

Goodness and kindness will pursue me
All the days of my life
And I will dwell within them
For the length of my days I will dwell within their ways.

Visit Hebrew College’s interreligious psalms site, The Book of Psalms: Calling Out from the Depths, to explore psalm 23.