Psalm 122:7

As rockets originating from Gaza are currently firing down on Israel, we mourn the lives lost in the Israeli and Palestinian communities. Believing that each person is created B’tzelem Elohim (in the Image of God). Moreover, our rabbinic tradition teaches “kol ham’abeid nefesh echat, ma’alin alav haKatuv k’elu m’abeid olam malei” - each loss of life is an entire world lost. 

As such, we are reminded at this most challenging, frightening, and difficult time that we are dedicated to see the infinite value in each individual. There are no words to express the level of fear and anxiety that many of us are feeling at this precarious time.

In the absence of words, we turn to tefilah, to prayer. Together, we pray for a quick ceasefire and commit ourselves to continue to work for a world where we are able to recognize the Divine spark in each individual and with that build a world ruled by lovingkindness and justice.

I invite you to chant or read this excerpt from psalms over the coming week with the knowledge that, right now, praying is what all of us can do as we mourn the events of the past week. Even as we weep for the dead, let us pray for the living, both Israeli and Palestinian, who are enduring the bombings