Times are tough, but we will prevail

As we come out of Shavuot, ironically I am reminded of a passage from the Haggadah on Pesach, that we remind ourselves each year during the seder, as much so that we never forget, as that we, and our children, will always remember.

“שֶׁבְּכָל דּוֹר וָדוֹר עוֹמְדִים עָלֵינוּ לְכַלּוֹתֵנוּ

“In every generation, they have stood before us to destroy us”

The last few weeks have been very difficult for the Jewish people. Our brothers and sisters in Israel are being subjected to murderous and indiscriminate attacks from a despotic enemy that is full of hate and darkness. Civilians are being murdered and maimed, and those that are not physically harmed are traumatized in ways that we may never see but will be so for many years to come, especially our youth. The international press and social media have frustrated us all.

We are a nation with a culture that has persevered for thousands of years, being evicted from our land and dispersed throughout the world for millennia, enduring among other things inquisitions, pogroms, a holocaust, and more recently wars and other armed conflicts. In every generation, they have come, but in every generation, we have prevailed.

Israel is incredibly strong — not because it has a powerful and sophisticated army, but because of its citizen soldiers, defending themselves, their families, and their people. And because of the entire Jewish nation, in Israel and abroad, that is standing firmly and resolutely behind it with the same Jewish values that have kept us together for thousands of years, whether we are on the political right or left; Sephardi or Ashkenazi; from Sydney or Sderot, Paris or Petach Tikva, London or Lod.

And so, fear not! We will prevail again this time. Light will always triumph over darkness, and the Jewish people will live on.

עֹשֶׂה שָׁלוֹם בִּמְרוֹמָיו, הוּא יַעֲשֶׂה שָׁלוֹם עָלֵינוּ וְעַל כָּל יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאִמְרוּ אָמֵן

“He who makes peace in his high places, will make peace upon us, and all Israel, Amen.”

Am Yisrael Chai!