From Depths of Despair to Hearts Filled with Gratitude
So much has changed since the devastation of October 7, two years ago! In the immediate aftermath of that attack, fears for Israel’s future became a visceral concern. Even the world sensed it, evidenced by so much initial support for Israel (historically Jews have garnered the most sympathy after some particularly devastating attack has been generated).
What has transpired since could not have been drawn up by Hollywood. Almost all the forces Iran generated to surround Israel have been miraculously neutralized, if not eliminated. When the only Iranian surrogate still making noise are the Houthis in Sudan, you have evidence of a different Middle East in the making. With the end of war against Hamas in sight, incomprehensibly we move closer to a region more absent from war than could have been dreamed of two years ago, October 8.
So, yes, even with the escalating awareness of the reality of anti-Semitism that is epidemic, we have much to be thankful for, even if cautiously so, about our future, especially as Israel is concerned. Only a couple of weeks ago Israel announced the readiness, by the end of this year, of a laser based anti-missile system that will cost pennies to launch vs. thousands of dollars for each conventional anti-missile rocket.
Speaking of going from despair to gratitude in a two-year period, that is how the Jewish calendar, on a yearly basis, is constructed. It is unlike the American calendar of holidays which are standalones, having no connection between one celebration or commemoration and another. The one connection that does seem to be made, possibly driven by the retail market encouraging it, is between Thanksgiving and the Holiday Season.
In contrast, the advantage in the Jewish calendar is that while each holiday has standalone character, each is more significant and impactful in its position as part of a sequence of holidays contributing one to the next.
The beginning of what comes to a climax with Sukkot originates in the summer, with the devastating destruction of Jewish infrastructure, the loss of both original Temples on the Ninth of Av. The calendar then flows through successive Sabbaths, prophecies from Isaiah, changing the energy from taking us to task, with destructive outcomes, for our internal misbehavior, i.e. turning from Mitzvah and partnership with God, to weeks of comfort, that God will not ultimately abandon us, for being human!
The calendar leads us in that direction through the month of Elul, associated with changing our direction in Teshuvah, Return toward God and Torah and Mitzvah. Coming out of Elul, we welcome the new calendar year, 5786, with reaffirmation of our partnership with God, our dedicated recall of lessons of the past, and exposing ourselves to the heart and soul penetrating sounds of the Shofar, symbolic of treasuring Life. Ten days later, on Yom Kippur, we climb the spiritual mountain of transformation, that we may begin the new year with hearts turned toward God and Torah, enabling ourselves to commit to Soulful living.
Five days later, starting Monday, October 6, we welcome the culmination of transformation from despair to gratitude for the world, yet again to be infused with hope and dedication, to a year moving us in the direction of Shalom. We pray for final resolution to the tragic losses of October 7: all remaining hostages returned home, and the elimination of the evil that devastated its own people while dedicating its all to destroying Israel.
Happy Sukkot! May this time of reflection on the world, and dedication to rid it of all evil, be the start of blessing, wellbeing and causes for Gratitude for all efforts leading the world to Shalom!
- David White (10-6-2025)
Why are the Jewish People such a Unique Target of Hostility?
One of the reasons it is so good for Congregation B’nai Israel to be part of the Reconstructing Judaism community is our commitment to see Judaism as, more than religion, a way for living as a civilization dedicated to repairing the world. So many of us grew up with Judaism as religion, a structure for prayer and ritual observance involving us as much as daily/weekly activity and as little as attendance on major holidays, the Days of Awe and or Passover. Those less involved may not have connected with arguably the most significant holiday, beginning this evening, June 1, Shavuot, the time of the Giving of the Torah. Shavuot (opening for us with an evening Zoom service, and culminating Tuesday, June 3 with a morning service including Hallel and Yizkor) is the holiday that defines, more than any other, our uniqueness as a people with its own governing constitution for building society that focuses on detailed care for the world and humanity, honored as God’s Partner. We are tasked with creating holiness, reflected in kindness, caring and commitment to Tzedek, doing what is right, Law and compassion. Shavuot teaches that we are to embrace Mitzvah as responsibility to do what is right, even if it isn’t necessarily self-serving. God’s Love is defined in terms of the Gift of Torah which teaches that love is not as much what you feel, as what you do.
Since the time of the Exodus from Egypt (celebrated with Passover), our people have encountered hostility from nations and forces that did not understand our mission and did not resonate with our call to human responsibility as a premise for why God created the physical world.
It was Pharaoh who introduced Antisemitism by accusing us, in our being different, of thereby being a threat to their way of life and security. He initiated the lies of the ages that we were a danger to them, a charge that would pervade attitudes about us throughout history.
Ironically, at the turn of the Millenium, when Christianity was introduced as an outgrowth from Judaism by those who promulgated a principle of faith and belief, i.e., in God’s salvation through Jesus replacing individual and community responsibility, which generated an institutional hostility toward Jews and Judaism. We were accused of rejecting their messiah and became historic targets of hatred for rejecting God, as they defined it. As Christianity took root through its adoption in the Roman Empire, Jews persisted in their understanding that the Messiah (or Messianic Age) would only arrive when human beings understood their responsibility to accept that God did not put us in the world to primarily have a good time (even at others’ expense), but rather to make time good (given that God’s name we do not pronounce is the root of “Time” itself).
The gift of Torah created a differentiation that connecting with God, more than through prayer and ritual, was predicated on making as many moments as possible, every day, Kadosh (special, memorable, excellent, significant, positive, holy and sacred) through our actions and deeds that would generate blessing for the world and its inhabitants.
That ironically contradicted the early and ongoing teachings of Christianity whose focus was on personal salvation more through faith and belief than behavior. The coming of the Messiah in that program was built on it being in God’s hands vs. Judaism insisting that God created us to be active partners in bringing that day or period into being. We are to be the agents for change for the better, rather than waiting for God to make it happen.
Human nature inclines us to want to be free to do whatever we want in life and for each person to take care of themselves in finding their way in this world. Growing children find themselves (especially as teens) resisting parents telling them what to do, along with rules that often disrupt how they would rather spend their time. Accordingly, in the adult world, we have individuals and even societal structures that resist programs or teachings that would insist on corrective measures for better behavior, i.e., looking out for others, even when not convenient or as favorable to one’s own perceived interests.
Conditions in the world today have allowed for greater authoritarian leadership, taking rights away from people and promoting might makes right more than principles of caring and responsibility. That makes us increasingly a target of hostility and resentment from those people and nations that don’t like being told what to do, via a system that insists on human responsibility as the means and process for living in this world and doing what is right on behalf of others who are not “one of us”.
Israel’s reemergence as a nation 77 years ago has complicated our place in the world and provided additional targeting of us as a people when Israel, living in one of the toughest “neighborhoods” on the planet, acts in a real world condition of doing what it takes to make sure their surrounding enemies (fueled by ages of hostility toward our people, so different in so many ways from the others) do not prevail (giving rise to leaders internally who themselves can and do get caught up with their own power addictions, these days).
Paradoxically, Judaism is the only religiously based community structure in the western world, so it is easy to be a target of other systems that are more individual based and lacking a constitution such as ours that shows in detail the ways of living as society, responsible for one another. Insecure people and nations will find it increasingly tempting to attack us, something easier to do than looking in the mirror and asking what they could or should be doing to embrace the purpose for being in this world, to be a force for good, for blessing and tasked with making choices to do what is right and proper on behalf of and for others, as the means for elevating their own meaning and purpose in life.
We Jews are blessed with Torah and history as a premise for learning lessons from the past to move us closer to the Messianic Age, which seems far off, at this moment. So, we must persevere in a world that does not like to hear “no” to those with power doing whatever they want to have things go their way.
- David White
The Shabbat before the Eclipse
It is amazing when Jewish calendar events “coincide” with life in the larger world. How many knew that the total eclipse occurred on the last day of the year in the Jewish calendar?
