Rabbi Kedar's blog

Dear congregants,

We feel an overwhelming sense of heaviness. I call upon our faith that demands that we pursue peace, the same prayers on the lips of the rabbis, who, moments before the attack were uttering the final words of the prayers of theAmidah:“God who makes peace in the high heavens, bring peace to us on earth.” 

A synagogue! During prayers! This is not a war between states that have political conflicts. This a war waged by extreme religious ideologies that know no borders, no political solutions, no sense of reason, no humanity. Savage.

Dear friends,

I'm home. I will be speaking about Israel during our Friday night service at 6:30 pm, but wanted to share this with you in the meantime:

Fear

It’s an odd thing. The fear that sends your heart to race, your mind to cloud. But it’s not like that. We are not afraid. In that regard each of us is a warrior. Trained to suppress the fear that says, save yourself, run, hide, for the love of God save yourself. We do not run. We do not hide. We go about the day, a cup of coffee with friend, a final exam. Meetings at work continue, carpool, weddings, a run to the store to buy challah for Shabbat. And in these millions of ordinary moments, our ears listen, eyes search; if a siren would come now, no now, even now, where’s the best place to go? And a plan is made, just like you plan a dinner party, dividing

It’s very quiet in my apartment. The music is soothing, peaceful, calming, moving.  The blinding summer sun ignites the hills, in contrast to the gentle, inspiring breeze that is Jerusalem air.

Contrasts. Paradoxes. Confusion. Sickening. We so wanted the moral high ground.

BJBE extends our heartfelt condolences to the families of Naftali Frenkel, Gilad Shaar and Eyal Yifrah, the three slain teens in Israel. We mourn with those in Israel and the Jewish people on this loss of innocent life. 

3 Tammuz 5774

One breath, one slow painful inhale, one sad tearful exhale. An entire nation is breathing in unison. No one is a stranger.  Everyone, every random person is a brother, a sister, a mother, a father, a grandparent, a mourner. And one long, large as the universe, vast as the stars, precise conversation:How sad and tragic a day. What to do? What to do?