A Yom Kippur Talk

The following is a talk I gave on Yom Kippur day last week in Southbury Connecticut at Congregation B’nai Israel:

October 12^th 2024

Dearest Rabbi and Fellow Congregants:

Rabbi Polokoff unexpectedly asked me to publicly reflect on the October 7^th attack on southern Israel and its impact upon Jewish life for this Yom Kippur service. Such reflections can certainly dwell on a lot of sad, foreboding matters. The events of October 7^th took a terrible toll on the Israeli communities in the Gaza envelope, and showed Hamas for what it is — a terror organization that kills babies and children, rapes both men and women and gleefully kills, mutilates and immolates civilians. October 7^th likewise triggered attacks on Israel from the Iranian-developed ring-of-fire  – Hezbollah to the North, Iraq and Iran to the West and the Houtis to the South. As well, October 7^th brought to our community here in the United States and in Western countries an outpouring of antisemitism on college campuses, in the mainstream media and in civil society. This wave of antisemitism here in the U.S. has put into question our bedrock assumptions that “it” couldn’t happen here.  Yet, notwithstanding these absolutely awful developments, there are consequences to these devastating and horrific events that I would like to call out that I would suggest offer some hope.

Rabbi Meir Soloveichik recently reflected in Mosaic Magazine about the differences in the liturgy of Ashkenazic Jews as compared to Sephardic Jews for the high holy day services. He opined that the prayer service of Ashkenazic Jews tends to focus on the fear of the impending judgement while the Sephardic liturgy is meant to inspire celebration, rather than sadness — joy, rather than fear.

Now, I am, admittedly, of Ashkenazic extraction. My23andMe genealogy report counts me as 99% Ashkenazic. But that has not stopped me from adopting some Sephardic traditions. My family eats rice during Passover, contrary to Ashkenazic tradition, but fully in keeping with Sephardic tradition. That this enables us to eat sushi during Passover may play no small part in making this accommodation.

So, rather than dwelling on the solemnity of the October 7^th tragedy and its aftermath as part of this service, let me adopt the Sephardic tradition of adding a modicum of celebration and joy — by focusing on what may be some good news.

My wife Stacy and I have many Jewish friends who live all over this country. These friends are, for the most part, not religious. They do not belong to any synagogue or participate in any communal Jewish activities. They may identify as Jews, but their Jewishness is, at best, secondary to their day to day lives.

Yet, we have seen that the events of October 7^th, and the resulting aftermath of antisemitism in this country and around the world as previously mentioned, have awakened a Jewish identity in many of these Jews that had been lacking. This awakened identity has resulted in a newfound recognition by these individuals that they are part of the larger Jewish community, k’lal Yisrael. Admittedly, my sampling of unaffiliated Jews is small. But I truly believe that what we have been seeing in our personal microcosm is applicable to the American Jewish community as a whole. It is now “us” versus “them”, it is now “we” versus “they”. This galvanization of Jewish identity is positively compounded and reinforced by the pride the Jewish community rightfully feels in the extraordinary accomplishments by Israel in fighting its enemies: Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houtis and Iran. Who could have imagined the beeper and walkie talkie achievements, the amazingly precise strikes against terrorists – from the most senior to the rank and file, the miraculous success of the Iron Dome, the David’s Sling and Arrow rocket/missile interceptors and their other military successes. The genius of the Israeli military and intelligence services (albeit in the shadow of their failures of October 7^th) are awe-inspiring, and may boost a level of a’havat Yisrael – a love of Israel – that might rival the exuberance felt by the Jewish community in the aftermath of the Six Day War of 1967.

If I may, let me also bring to your attention another positive, I daresay, extremely positive, result from the horrors of October 7. But for the attack, and the concomitant need for Israel to bring the fight to Hamas, Israel would have remained under the continued and terrible threat of Hamas to the south, Hezbollah to the north and Iran to the east. Unlike any other country in the world, Israel is expected to live with a constant barrage of rocket attacks, whether from Hamas and Hezbollah. Israel likewise had been expected to sit idly by while Iran – a theocracy sworn to the destruction of Israel – ramps up its nuclear bomb development program that would allow it to bring to fruition its promise to annihilate Israel. Yet, from the abyss of October 7^th, and only because of that disaster, Israel was able to take the opportunity to destroy Hamas’ military capability, decapitate Hezbollah’s leadership and greatly reduce the threat of invasion from the north. We await, with much trepidation, Israel’s response to the Iranian ballistic missile attacks of October 1 and mid-April, and pray that such response will be a powerful step in the goal of decapitating the head of the octopus that is Iran.

May these transformations of sorrow to joy, and pain to celebration, harken for this congregation, and to Jews the world over, a New Year of safety, peace and thanksgiving.

Thank you.