Shloshim – Thirty Days

Od lo avdah tikvateinu – Our hope is not lost. The first thirty days of grief has passed yet tragically still we grieve and still we weep. The cloud of sorrow is palpable. And still the end of shloshim bids us to return to the tasks of life, to the tasks of our community, and to the tasks of upholding Israel.

We continue to build Jewish life – teaching our children, planting for the future, celebrating our simchas (celebrations), all the while with our hearts in the East and our eyes set on Zion.

The end of shloshim bids us to move forward, making places in our hearts for complexity – holding grief with gratitude, holding fear with faith, and holding the commitment to eradicate evil and the commitment to protect innocent life, with a tireless commitment to bring our hostages home… men, women, children, babies, the elderly, every last one.

Od lo avdah tikvateinu – Our hope is not lost. As Jews have done for nearly 4000 years, we must live with hope. We must give hope – to each other, to Israel, to honor our past, and to sustain our future.