Community at Temple Israel
Rabbi’s Message – October 16, 2025
This past Shabbat I shared my cautious optimism about the ceasefire and the return of our hostages. On Monday night, as we celebrated Simchat Torah, we finally took the collective sigh of relief we had been praying for.
My heart was full knowing it was the first time since Simchat Torah 2023 that we read from the Torah without including the Acheinu prayer for the living hostages.
For two years, we have been talking about “The Day After.” For some, it may finally feel like October 8th. For others, moving forward while carrying this grief and trauma will never feel like a “new normal.” Together, we will navigate the path forward and lean upon each other.
When I visited Israel in January of 2024, I shared that the experience felt like making a shiva call. As Na’ama Levitz Applbaum recently noted in her article, “An Invitation to Rise from our Communal Mourning,” our tradition offers a powerful next step: when shiva ends, mourners rise from the floor, helped by their community. They are invited — gently, communally — to re-enter life.
Her words resonate deeply in this moment.
As the last hostages return home and the burials are complete, we are being called to say as a people: “קֻמוּ מֵאֵבְלְכֶם / Kumu m’evlekhem — Rise from your mourning.” This is our communal “rising from the floor” moment.
We must couple our mourning with the fierce belief that we will rise again.
Our task now is to transform our communal grief into action, shifting from solidarity in mourning toward solidarity in rebuilding. We will each do this differently:
• Renewing our commitment to Israel, Zionism, and Jewish peoplehood
• Speaking out tirelessly against antisemitism
• Mending fences across painful divides
However we do it, we do not stand alone. Like mourners at the end of shiva, we must offer hands to one another—across differences, across pain, and across uncertainty.
Hashkiveinu
Below is the Hashkiveinu I offered at Simchat Torah, the day our hostages began to come home.
הַשְׁכִּיבֵנוּ יְיָ אֱלֹהֵינוּ לְשָׁלוֹם …
Hashkiveinu Adonai Eloheinu l’shalom…
Lay us down, Adonai, our God, in peace…
Spread over us
the shelter of Your peace.
Tonight, Source of Life,
we give thanks for lives returned,
for loved ones embraced,
for breaths finally released.
Shelter those who have come home
beneath Your sukkat shalom —
that fragile canopy which, though thin,
holds the promise of calm after unrest.
May this night allow hearts
to rest more easily,
bodies to lie down without fear,
and hope to take root
as we await the return
of those who can no longer
come home in life.
Surround their families
with the love of the house of Israel
and Your Eternal Presence.
May Your shelter of peace
stretch wide over us all.
Guide us with Your counsel.
Shield us with Your love.
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ הַפּוֹרֵשׂ סֻכַּת שָׁלוֹם עָלֵינוּ וְעַל כָּל עַמּוֹ יִשְׂרָאֵל וְעַל יְרוּשָׁלָיִם.
Baruch Atah, Adonai, ha’pores sukkat shalom aleinu, v’al kol amo Yisrael,
v’al Yerushalayim.
Blessed are You, Adonai, who spreads Your shelter of peace over us, and over all Your people Israel and over Jerusalem.