A Word from Rabbi Schulman - 5/21/21

Today and in the days ahead, let us pray for peace. Peace for Israel, peace within Israel, peace for Israel and for Palestinians.

In the words of Rabbi Josh Weinberg, vice president for Israel and Reform Judaism for the Union for Reform Judaism:

“At this moment, those of us who live in the West and whose hearts are in the East mourn the loss of life, feel the pain of all who are cowering in fear, and send our prayers and wishes for an end to the violence and for quiet to be restored.

As Reform Jews, we stand strongly together with our brothers and sisters in Israel. Hamas has launched a massive barrage of rocket fire on southern and central Israel. Israeli civilians have been killed and hundreds of thousands more - from Tel Aviv to Beersheba –are confined to bomb shelters. Innocent civilians in Gaza have fallen victim to this latest round of violence as well. Furthermore, the rapid escalation of violence within Israel's own borders between Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel is a new, and deeply troubling, development. We pray that calm will be restored.”

On a personal note, I will refrain from offering an analysis of the historical context for this conflict; nor will I provide a political analysis for why these hostilities are taking place at this time. The brief space of this blog is insufficient for doing so.

However, heartfelt prayer transcends history and politics. To that end, we offer these words by Rabbi Nico Sokolovsky:

O God, U’fros Aleinu Sukkat Shlomecha,

Cover us with the shelter of Your peace

May we have the courage to denounce violence and destruction,

May we become partners in building that shelter of peace.