distrust that now overwhelms so much and so many. It mourns for collaborations and work of coexistence forged by Israelis and Palestinians now scattered like shards on the ground. Libi b'mizrach/my heart is in the east where rockets reign, raining down with constancy and consistency. Libi b'mizrach/my heart is in the east where lynchings take place in Bat Yam. My heart is in the east where hamas/lawlessness (the term used in parashat noah) is turning my heart's piece of the world upside down.
My body, however, is here in the west, watching and listening to my brothers and sisters across the sea. Children of friends who set aside Shabbat pjs (nice pajamas) for the shelter. Colleagues who respond to the tzeva adom/warning siren by keeping the peace amongst all the neighbors' dogs in the stairway and basement of apartment buildings. As they attend to the needs of the moment, and bring some lightheartedness into tragic times, those whose bodies and souls are in the east exist in a state of limbo, between light and dark, life and death. This is neither normal nor ok. For everyone who has said to me, I am ok, I say, I cannot comprehend what ok means in these times. Perhaps it is a commitment to access the seed of hope planted deep within, like the first fruits harvested on Shauvot. Hope that we can remember each other's humanity. Hope that intimate commitments and collaborations of medical professionals and others that permeated life during this corona year will be retained as muscle memory to survive this tragic time of terror.
Here, we can continue to gather, even virtually, to Stand with Israel, as well over 1000 did earlier this week. We can support Israel's food bank Leket Israel as they support local businesses, continue to serve the homebound and assess immediate emergency food needs from Tel Aviv to the south. We can continue to reach out to friends and family. We must remember that this tragic terror is happening to humans - mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, young and old, short and tall. Gd's creatures, so many of whom want to live a life of connectedness and freedom. We must, we must maintain our humanity and compassion for life. As Jews, we treasure life and heed the call to live into our responsibilities and commandments for life and not for death.
We can, of course, pray for peace, wholeness and love, sanctity and sanity. As we prepare to enter into Shabbat, I offer these words from my friend, colleague and teacher Rabbi Tamar Elad-Appelbaum and Hajja Ibtisam Mahmid.
Sovereign Who desires life, Healer of broken hearts Who dresses the wounds of their sadness
Hear, we entreat you, the prayer of mothers
That you created us not to kill one another nor that we live in fear, anger and hate in your world
Rather that we should know to give permission to one another to establish your name, the Name of Life, the Name of Peace in the world
For these I weep, my eyes, my eyes flow with tears for children crying with fear in the night
For parents holding their toddlers and despair and darkness in their hearts. Who will rise and open a locked gate before sunset?
And tears and prayers that I offer at all times and tears which all women who hurt with the hard pain of this brutal time
I raise my hands up
We entreat You, Eternal One, have mercy on us, hear our voices, the Eternal our God in these evil days that we not despair so we can see the life one for the other
That we may have mercy one for the other
Sorrow one for the other
Hope one for the other
And let us inscribe, jointly, our lives in the book of life for Your sake, God of Life, that we choose life
For You are Peace and your abode is peace and all that is Yours is peace and let that continue to be Your will
And let us say, Amen.
Shabbat Shalom - may peace reign/rain,
rg
