We will always remember this week. In the future, our grandchildren will ask us what we did and where we were when we received the news about Israel’s courageous preemptive strike on the Iranian regime’s nuclear program, saving the West. We texted with congregants and family members in bomb shelters throughout Israel, people singing, praying, crying, and hoping their children would sleep a few hours through the hellish nights. So many of us wondered what this moment in history would bring.
Will we witness a free Iranian people? Will Israel and humanity experience a safer future because of a weakened Iranian regime and, therefore, a weakening of Iran’s proxies? The wait, even thousands of miles away, is debilitating. Israelis stranded in the United States are anxious to return home. Americans stranded in Israel are anxious to go home. Israelis’ movements depend on the sound of each siren they hear. The unknown is frightening.
Psalm 30 reminds us that hope is coming: “One may lie down weeping at nightfall; but at dawn, there are shouts of joy.” For Israel, the Jewish people, and the Western world, nightfall may feel excruciatingly long. But, as the Psalmist comforts us, joy will soon replace our fear. Light will pierce the darkness. Peace will push away the evil.
May we pray for nightfall to lift, quickly. May Israel prevail, and may the world experience what we recite every day in our prayers: “That peace will fill the earth as waters fill the sea.” Amen.
Shabbat Shalom
