They Came Home! Chag Sameach!

Like many of you, I have been up much of the night listening, watching, reading as we anticipated and then saw the release of the 20 remaining living hostages taken into captivity two years ago.  There are so many mixed emotions on this historic day and it is hard to process them all, let alone even begin to imagine the feelings of those being released and the joy and relief of their families. As I write, only 4 of the human remains of the dead hostages are being returned and the anticipation and pain of those families, some of whom have never given up hope and most of whom need the closure of burial and shiva, must be unbearable. It has been an indescribably intense and painful two years in which we have held so much. Too much. 

There is so much to celebrate in the return of these 20 people for whom the nightmare of captivity is over, and in the hope of peace.  Israel welcomes home their beloveds  Matan Angrest, Gali Berman, Ziv Berman, Elkana Bohbot, Rom Braslavski, Nimrod Cohen, Ariel Cunio, David Cunio, Evyatar David, Guy Gilboa-Dalal, Maxim Herkin, Eitan Horn, Segev Kalfon, Bar Abraham Kupershtein, Omri Miran, Eitan Mor, Alon Ohel, Yosef-Haim Ohana, Avinatan Or and Matan Zangauker. 

Since November 2023, a dedicated group, Run for their Lives Boulder, have walked every single Sunday to raise awareness of the plight of these hostages and were hit by the awful attack on June 1st.  They walked for the last time yesterday and we honor their commitment and resilience.

There is so much joy and hope and also continuing anguish and pain at all the terrible loss. 2,000 Palestinian prisoners have been released, including 250 serving life sentences for violent crimes, including on October 7th.  As joyful as we are for the return of the captives, there is fear, unrest and uncertainty that remain.

In services this last Shabbat, we read the Book of Kohelet, Ecclesiastes, the powerful wisdom literature attributed to King Solomon that includes the very famous passage “there is a season for everything; a time for every purpose under heaven. A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance…(Kohelet, chapter 3)

On Saturday night, Rachel Goldberg-Polin, the mother of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, the young hostage who was killed while in captivity, delivered a very moving speech at a gathering in Jerusalem.  She named the complexity of emotions of this hostage deal as both live and dead hostages are released; the joy and celebration and the grieving and loss. She said:

“We are told…there is a season for everything and a time for everything, but now, we are being asked to digest all of those seasons, all of those times, at the exact same second –  winter, spring, summer, fall – experience all four right now. It says there is a time to be born and a time to die, and we have to do both right now. It says there is a time to weep and a time to laugh, and we have to do both right now. It says there is a time to tear and to heal, and we have to do both right now. And it says there is a time to sob, and there is a time to dance, and we have to do both right now.”

Her words were so full of emotion and reminded me of the famous Yehuda Amichai poem, Adam b’chayav, A Man in his Life.

A Man in His Life
A man doesn’t have time in his life 
to have time for everything. 
He doesn’t have seasons enough to have 
a season for every purpose. 
Ecclesiastes was wrong about that. 
A man needs to love and to hate at the same moment, 
to laugh and cry with the same eyes, 
with the same hands to throw stones and to gather them, 
to make love in war and war in love. 
And to hate and forgive and remember and forget, 
to arrange and confuse, to eat and to digest 
what history takes years and years to do. 
A man doesn’t have time. 
When he loses he seeks, when he finds 
he forgets, when he forgets he loves, when he loves 
he begins to forget…

Today is Hoshana Rabbah, the last day of Sukkot before we enter the last of these holidays Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah.  The timing of this release is so deeply poignant as, of course, the horrors of October 7th 2023 coincided with the dawn of Simchat Torah in Israel (Shemini Atzeret here) at 6.29am.  The release happened on Hoshana Rabbah, a day on which we chant over and over and over again “Hoshana, save us!”  “Save those who cry out to You. Save humankind. Save the animals. Save flesh, soul and spirit. Save and replenish the earth. Save the planet, suspended over the void. Together, God, let us save.”

Tomorrow morning our Shemini Atzeret services include Yizkor, the memorial prayer, and we remember those who did not survive along with our own loved ones, and tefillat geshem, the prayer for rain.  We hope for a gentle rain that will wash away the ancient grudges, heal us and nourish the earth.  On Tuesday night, our celebration of Simchat Torah begins and we will dance again with the Torah, honoring the ancient cycle of ending and beginning, knowing that in each beginning there is an end and in each end there is a beginning.

Our hearts are full of gratitude for the end of the nightmare of these 2 years of captivity and war, and we are also grieving all that is lost, laughing and crying with the same eyes.

Today is the last day where it is a mitzvah to dwell in the shade of the Sukkah in all its fragility, with many blown away in the yesterday’s winds.  May we merit to be embraced by a Sukkat Shalom, a Sukkah of peace, a Sukkah of faith, a Sukkah of hope and healing.

Here is a link to a special prayer of Thanksgiving for the return of the hostages.
Thank God they are home!
Hope we get to dance together.

Chag sameach
Rabbi Marc