Rabbi's Week in Review Blog

Honestly, I don’t know what to write this week.  I go to bed with the announcement of a cease fire between Israel and Iran, and wake up learning it could not even hold for a day. We continue to be fed the delusion that there is any action of war that can make us safer.

Israelis can never stray too far from bomb shelters. Hostages, those still alive we pray, and those whose lives are lost, remain in Gaza. Hostage families continue to suffer. Starvation and destruction remain in Gaza, and Palestinians remain terrorized in the West Bank. Iranian civilians (a majority of whom despise their own government) remain under threat. This is madness.

All of our leaders have failed us, not seeing the humanity in the other, and caring little for their own people. Oh, and lest we be distracted from what is happening in our own backyard, I was greeted this morning by the news that, a father of a US Marine veteran, someone with no criminal record who has lived in the States since the nineties was arrested while doing landscaping work at an IHOP in California. Another callous action by a political leader that is the furthest thing from making any of us safer.

Despite all the reasons to be discouraged and bereft of hope, I hold on to the recent rally attended by so many as a starting point for hope. Let us seek out those organizations, and those people who try to bring together all who are divided, and organizations that work for peace.  Let us not turn our discouragement into paralysis. Let us always lead with compassion.