Dear North Shore Synagogue Family,
Today, being August 7th, marks 10 months since the brutal Saturday morning, Simchat Torah attack on our Israeli brothers and sisters on October 7th, now known as the Black Sabbath. Today we mark 10 months that over 100 hostages still remain in Gaza. While many attempts to bring them home have been unsuccessful, we celebrate the small successes and pray for the return of our people still held in bondage.
Today we face another crisis of threats from Iran to add to the active violence still carried out by Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. I offer us the words of my friend in Israel, Haim Shalom. He writes,
“Life may go on as normal. But normal does not go on as normal. Normal has evolved. Normal is now 100 bottles of water stacked in the living room. Normal is checking with your partner what the plan is if the bombs begin to fall when you are at the zoo with the kids. Normal is feeling guilty that you kind of want the attack to come because the waiting feels worse than whatever might come next. Normal is having forgotten what your body felt like before all your muscles were gripped by stress. Normal is deciding whether to sleep in your bed or in a room with a steel enforced door and bomb-proof walls. Normal is joking about imminent death, because better to joke than fear. Normal is fear. And fear of fear. And denial. Life goes on as normal. But this normal cannot go on.”
We cannot stop the seeming avalanche. We cannot go into Gaza and bring our people home. We cannot save all suffering people in the world. But we can make some changes. We can make some difference. We can write, we can lobby, we can vote, and we can pray. Today, I offer us this prayer.
May THE ONE who blessed our ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leach; bless, preserve and protect the captives and missing soldiers of the citizens of Israel and the Israel Defense Forces. May God rescue them from captivity and speedily restore them in peace, in the merit of the prayers of this holy congregation who pray for them. May the Holy One, Blessed Be God, show them mercy, increase their strength, remove their pain and send them a recovery of body and spirit; may God return them to the bosom of their families swiftly and soon. And let us say: Amen.
B’Shalom
Rabbi Jaimee Shalhevet
Cantor Steven Hevenstone
10th Anniversary of October 7th
August 7, 2024 by nssadmin • Blog
Dear North Shore Synagogue Family,
Today, being August 7th, marks 10 months since the brutal Saturday morning, Simchat Torah attack on our Israeli brothers and sisters on October 7th, now known as the Black Sabbath. Today we mark 10 months that over 100 hostages still remain in Gaza. While many attempts to bring them home have been unsuccessful, we celebrate the small successes and pray for the return of our people still held in bondage.
Today we face another crisis of threats from Iran to add to the active violence still carried out by Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. I offer us the words of my friend in Israel, Haim Shalom. He writes,
“Life may go on as normal. But normal does not go on as normal. Normal has evolved. Normal is now 100 bottles of water stacked in the living room. Normal is checking with your partner what the plan is if the bombs begin to fall when you are at the zoo with the kids. Normal is feeling guilty that you kind of want the attack to come because the waiting feels worse than whatever might come next. Normal is having forgotten what your body felt like before all your muscles were gripped by stress. Normal is deciding whether to sleep in your bed or in a room with a steel enforced door and bomb-proof walls. Normal is joking about imminent death, because better to joke than fear. Normal is fear. And fear of fear. And denial. Life goes on as normal. But this normal cannot go on.”
We cannot stop the seeming avalanche. We cannot go into Gaza and bring our people home. We cannot save all suffering people in the world. But we can make some changes. We can make some difference. We can write, we can lobby, we can vote, and we can pray. Today, I offer us this prayer.
May THE ONE who blessed our ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leach; bless, preserve and protect the captives and missing soldiers of the citizens of Israel and the Israel Defense Forces. May God rescue them from captivity and speedily restore them in peace, in the merit of the prayers of this holy congregation who pray for them. May the Holy One, Blessed Be God, show them mercy, increase their strength, remove their pain and send them a recovery of body and spirit; may God return them to the bosom of their families swiftly and soon. And let us say: Amen.
B’Shalom
Rabbi Jaimee Shalhevet
Cantor Steven Hevenstone