It honestly seems like yesterday.
Last year, on 16th September, the first day
of Rosh Hashanah, I stood on this exact spot and towards the end of my sermon
read the following words:
‘Today, I stand alongside you, sincerely hoping that your own year books will
contain the best of everything that the forthcoming Jewish year (which contains
13 months) can provide us with. We need
the kind of days that brightened up my June and August so that we can
appreciate how blessed we are to be alive, to have family and friends who love
us and be in possession of the financial security to help us negotiate these
difficult times.’
The
‘June’ I referred to was of course the wonderful day we spent together marking the
Cheltenham Hebrew Congregation’s bicentennial.
The ‘August’ recalled the wedding of my eldest daughter, Hadassah.
Twenty-one
days after I delivered that Sermon - on Shmini Atzeret - we know exactly what
happened.
‘so that we can appreciate how blessed we are to be alive, to have family and friends who love us…’
How can anyone
in Israel utter these words without breaking down, considering the blackest,
bloodiest and bleakest day in the eighty years that have transpired since the
end of the Shoah? How can any Jewish
person outside of the Land of Israel not wonder whether they too might have
been one of the thousands killed or kidnapped? Furthermore, even if they weren’t amongst the
casualties, perhaps their child was fighting in Gaza or in the North.
Shortly, during
the repetition of the Musaf Amida, we will recite one of the most stirring and,
if I may add, terrifying prayers in the entire High Holidays liturgy:
'On
Rosh Hashanah it is written and on Yom Kippur it is sealed:
how
many will pass away and many will be born;
who
will live and who will die;
who
in his due time and who before;
who
by water and who by fire;
who
by sword and who by beast;
who
of hunger and who of thirst…
…who
by strangling and who by stoning…'
(taken
from the Sacks Koren Rosh Hashanah Machzor page 568).
How many
of the descriptions in the paragraph can we ascribe to the barbarity that was
inflicted on our nation and others by a cruel, sadistic and savage enemy on 7th
October? How many relate to the
treatment of the hostages – both those who were murdered or are still surviving
in tunnels or cages that are hardly large enough to enable a human being to
stand up properly?
My father
passed away in July of last year just over a month before his 95th birthday. There is not a day that goes by where I don’t
miss him and wish he were still here but can I honestly claim that he died
before his ‘due time’?
Can we
say the same about Hersh (23), Eden (24), Ori (25), Almog (27), Alexander (33),
Carmel (40), Jake (26) (my friend’s cousin and stepdaughter’s peer from JFS) who
was a security guard at the Nova festival? Did they die before their ‘due time’?
Seeing
what happened to them and many of the others who attended the Nova festival on
that day (including Hersh) in the unforgettable recent Israeli documentary aired
on BBC 2 ‘Surviving October 7th: We Will Dance Again’ was horrific, shocking
and heart-breaking.
How about
the over 300 IDF soldiers killed in Gaza?
Some of them are around the same age as my children and stepchildren. Did they too die before their time?
Nearly a
year ago, Jo Woolfe started an initiative in her Hampstead Garden Suburb home. Every week with a team of volunteers, she packs
2000 pairs of blue tea lights in pouches along with a photograph of a hostage containing
their name and age, a prayer for their release and also for those who have been
released. She has taken them to shops
and schools. (https://www.thejc.com/community/one-womans-mission-to-keep-the-flame-alive-for-the-hostages-j29nx7c7).
Back in
November, I picked up a pack which contained Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s name and
adopted him as my ‘guest for shabbat’. Every
Friday night when I was in Staines, I laid the table for the two of us. Hersh and I waited for him to be freed.
When the
horrific news came through, I decided to continue the practice because I realised
that, as per his mother Rachel’s heart-breaking hesped/eulogy at his gravesite,
Hersh was now truly free and for the first time since his capture, could join
me at my Shabbat table.
In Judaism, there is a concept called ‘kol Yisrael areivim ze la ze’. It means that ‘every single Jew is responsible for every other Jew’. Whether or not they want us to be and when we recite the prayer that I am referencing, we are relating it to each and every man, woman and child who has been impacted by the events that have shaped this past year.
And I
believe it is this aspect of religion that has been a catalyst in determining
the other side of the year. I have lost
count of the number of Psalms I have been reciting since October, both in a
minyan or by myself.
Since the
start of the war, we have witnessed some events that are so extraordinary that
they defy rational explanation. In
April, Iran sent over 300 drones, missiles and other devices with the intention
of causing as much carnage as they could to Israel. The vast majority didn’t reach their
destination as a troupe of Israeli, American, British, French and Jordanian (!)
air forces knocked them out of the sky. Yes,
the Jordanian Air Force protected Israel.
Let’s just think about that for a moment and last Tuesday’s missile attack
did not result in a single Israeli death.
The
Israeli secret services comprising of the Mossad and Shin Bet managed to
eliminate the head of Hamas in a room in Iran along with the top brass of
Hezbollah Commanders in Lebanon and of course their evil leader.
A few
hostages were rescued in some military operations that could have formed
set-pieces in Hollywood action movies and as for the exploding pagers,
walkie-talkies and solar panels…what can one say?
For me
personally, the most powerful and positive memories I have of the post October
7th pogrom/massacre, focus on the unity that pervaded (sadly for too short a
time) both and Israel and outside the country.
Where the slogan of ‘Am Yisrael Chai’ became our buzzword. Predictably though, soon enough, our people
reverted to recreate the divisions that we are all accustomed to. These have
sadly returned.
Which
brings me back to the prayer that I referenced at the start of this sermon. I strongly believe that everything
positive that has taken place has come about because of the unity we show when
we pray together. When we support each
other emotionally. When we support the
State of Israel and its institutions financially. When we unite to defend Israel and by
extension the Jewish People against those who literally hate us and wish us death;
those who march menacingly through our streets; threaten our university
students both in the United States and the UK whilst the authorities stand by
and do nothing. Sometimes even joining
their ranks.
The
prayer ends with a formula that can bring about a reversal in our fortune.
'Uteshuva – Utefila – Utzedaka - Ma’avirin et Ro’ah
Hagezeira'
'But repentance, prayer and giving to charity– avert the
evil decree.'
Even in
our darkest hour, we have not given up hope and there have been glimmers of
light when we thought that all was lost.
This Rosh
Hashana, we need to focus our every effort to effect change. We have seen what can happen when we unite
and use the weapons that have made up our spiritual arsenal for thousands of
years, such as reciting Psalms.
It is
never too late to give Tzedaka to Israeli charities that are literally
providing a lifeline to our brothers and sisters across the Mediterranean Sea.
If we
redouble our efforts to speak with one voice and become once again ‘am echad be’lev echad’ – ‘one people – one heart’ – as we witnessed at Sinai, this
brand-new year of 5785 may end up being an opposite of its predecessor.
May Gd protect
the State of Israel, the IDF and all Israeli security forces and may we see the
return of the hostages very soon. May He
bring peace back to our beloved land and frustrate the plans of our enemies.
I
couldn’t think of a more appropriate prayer on this Day of Judgement.
Shanah Tova Umetuka – may we all be blessed with a
sweet year and a successful inscription in the Book of Life.
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