On Sukkot it is customary to read the book of Ecclesiastes which says:
There is a time for everything, and a season for every purpose under heaven:
a time to be born and a time to die; a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn and a time to dance; a time for war and a time for peace.
Last year our dancing turned into mourning.
We look forward to a time when we can dance again.
Ecclesiastes says that there is a time for war and a time for peace.
For Israel this is a worrying time of war We pray that soon will come a time of real peace,
for Israel and for the surrounding nations when, in the words of the prophet Micah:
‘Everyone can sit under their vine and under their fig tree, and none shall terrorize them!’
This year after Pesach, Chani and I went to Israel. It was not a holiday,
We were going to visit family and friends as a gesture of support
and we were going to listen, as a way of saying, ‘we are here and present and with you’.
On our trip to Israel we listened to relatives who were divided into different groups with very different views, some no longer speaking to each other’ representing the divisions in Israel.
| It has been said that the people of Israel are divided into two groups:
one group knows everything, and the other group knows everything better! |
|
| That certainly applies to my family. |
And yet all the family are concerned for the future of Israel, and have children, nephews or nieces or grandchildren serving in the IDF and are anxious for their welfare.
Another thing in common is that most chose to respond to October 7th and its aftermath in positive ways, by volunteering – giving comfort to the bereaved;
supporting hostage families; helping survivors injured in body or mind;
supporting displaced people; supporting farmers whose cattle and crops are suffering; volunteering for security duty; teaching schoolchildren whose education had been disrupted.
Maybe there are some values that do unite Israel, even though in other ways it is divided,
While we were there, there were many demonstrations:
in support of the hostages, and anti-government demonstrations,
Haredi demonstrations against conscription and right wing demonstrations.
The nicest demonstration I went to – was an Interfaith march for Peace and Humanity starting in West Jerusalem and meeting a similar march of ‘Palestinians for Peace and Human Rights’ coming from East Jerusalem. Together we had a rally for peace and understanding and heard a joint choir of Palestinian and Israeli youth singing together
I met like-minded people there including Rabbi Josh Levy, Charlie Baginsky and Michael Marmur, and other Israeli Reform, Conservative and Orthodox leaders as well as Muslims, Christians and Druze.
For me, the most moving moment was the prayer of the mothers for life and peace,
recited in Arabic and in Hebrew, by the two women who had written it together:
Sheikha Ibtisam Maḥameed and Rabbi Tamar Elad-Appelbaum They prayed:
“God of Life,
Who heals the broken hearted and binds up their wounds
May it be your will to hear the prayer of mothers
For you did not create us to kill one another
Nor to live in fear, anger or hatred in your world,
But rather you created us to enable one another
to sanctify Your name of Life, Your name of Peace in this world. . . . .
Please God have mercy on us
Hear our voice so that we do not despair
in these terrible times,
That we shall see life in each other,
That we shall have pity for each other,
That we shall have hope for each other
That we shall write our lives in the Book of Life
For your sake God of Life, let us choose Life.
For you are Peace, your Home is Peace
And all your paths are Peace
May this be your will, and let us say “Amen””
It was as if Sarah and Hagar had settled their differences and joined voices,
(if you have been following torah portions over Rosh Hashanah),
because they both wanted their children to live
and did not want to see any more suffering for little Isaac or for little Ishmael.
Can we hear the voices of the mothers, as God heard the voices of Sarah and Hagar?
Can we listen as Abraham listened to the voice of his wife and to the voice of God, and be ready to make a new response?
The Patriarchs, Judges and Prophets all dared to believe that a good future was possible, and that they could play a part in making it happen.
Judaism has always held a long-term vision of hope, even when the short term is fraught with difficulties as today.
The demonstration for peace and understanding was not as big as the other demonstrations, but it happened and it was important. It was proof that there are partners for peace on both sides.
Ali Abu Awwad said that you don’t need a million people to build a bridge for peace. You just need enough people to build a bridge for peace and a million people can walk over it.
So we ask God to ‘ pores sukkat shlomeichah, aleinu veal kol Yisrael, ve’al kol haolam.’
Spread out your Sukkat Shalom, your ‘Tabernacle of Peace,’ over us, over all Israel
and over all the world. Amen
