Rabbi's Week in Review Blog

This week I mourn the deaths of the returned hostages: Shiri Bibas and her two children, Ariel and Kfir, Oded Lifshitz, Shlomo Mantzur, Ohad Yahalomi, Taschi Idan, and Itzhak Elgarat.

This week I fear that the second stage of the ceasefire will be upended by the continued failure of leadership on all sides of the conflict in Israel-Palestine.

This week I am saddened as 40,000 Palestinians are displaced from their homes in the West Bank where human rights violations continue unabated, and the news I am receiving as I write this - that Netanyahu has cut off all aid to Gaza.

Amidst the gloom and despair, this week I look forward with hope to our holidays; to Purim and its message of Esther’s courage in the face of tyranny, and especially Pesach-a Passover to celebrate our freedom and to work for the freedom of all people. We know that none of us are truly free until we are all free.

This week I wish my Muslim friends a meaningful and hopeful Ramadan. May their fasts be ones of meaning and good health, and allow them to look to the future with hope. May we all see the humanity in each other, to move beyond failed leadership to all be Rodfei Shalom, pursuers of peace.