Resources

A lifetime of Jewish observance has prepared me with the tools for spiritual resilience and meaning-making when it is our community who suffers... What I need are the tools for when the people I love are the ones inflicting suffering.

The entire people is holy, each of them. God is with their pain and their needs. As narrow as our focus can be when we are in acute moments of pain, in struggling with what to say and when to say it as a leader, I see that there are times to push, times to be silent, and times to support.

By Rabbis Felicia Sol and Roly Matalon of B’nai Jeshurun in New York City.

For those of us feeling as if we only see evil and darkness in the other, it might be helpful to sit a while in the silence of the Divine Void where we are invited to join with God to look at the ways in which we ourselves may contribute to societal evils. Grappling with our own complicity could be just the impetus for us to seek common ground with those we label as evil. May we find a new way forward, together, for the old ways are no longer serving us.

In the wake of the events of October 7, 2023, many of us in the global Jewish community have found ourselves longing for liturgical language to speak to the sense of loss, hopelessness, and heartbreak we have felt over the past year. The following words are an adaptation of El Malei Rachamim (“God full of compassion”), a prayer traditionally recited over the dead at funerals and during Yizkor on Yom Kippur, created by Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld, President of Hebrew College.

We offer these texts, sermon ideas, articles, talking points, and insights about the Israel-Hamas war and its reverberating effects to make it a little easier to meet the needs of your community at a tremendously difficult time.