Dear Friends,
First, I want to share my words from yesterday in case you didn’t already have a chance to read them:
“We were all celebrating at the Capitol Jewish Museum just a few weeks ago. Last night, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, two Israeli embassy staffers – soon to be engaged, according to people who knew them – were shot and killed right outside it, as they left an AJC event where many of us knew speakers and attendees. The killer made his motive very clear, chanting “Free Palestine” as he was handcuffed. But of course, these murders did nothing to free Palestine. They simply added two young Jewish souls with infinite potential to the already devastating and unacceptable death count. May Sarah Lynn and Yaron’s memories be for a blessing.
Wherever you are right now, please join me in the prayer we came to know as a community over the course of last year’s High Holidays. Right now it feels as urgent as ever.”
Tonight, we’ll gather as a community for a vigil from 6:30-7pm to mourn and connect over our shared grief, trauma, and yearning for an end to violence. Feel free to invite friends and anyone who would find meaning in coming together on this painful Shabbat. I attended the mayor’s briefing for faith leaders yesterday morning, and I was moved by the outpouring of support and care from a wide variety of clergy – Muslim, Christian, and Jewish alike. I was able to invite them all to our vigil this evening, so I hope we’ll see a variety of supportive faces there. We are not alone, and we will find our strength together.
I’m still hoping that this will be a Shabbat of peace and interconnectedness, as we now need it more than ever as a community, and I’m also recognizing how hard that inner peace is going to be to find. Please be gentle with yourselves this Shabbat. Make space for grief, and allow yourself sweetness and comfort as well – particularly in light of our parsha this week, which commands rest and recharge. Find time to connect with people who get it, and if you have the capacity, take courage to be there for others who need that support as well. May the families and friends of Yaron and Sarah find comfort among the mourners of Zion, and comfort among us all, as our hopes and prayers for peace and safety for every Jew and for every human being are lifted up together.
Shabbat shalom,
Rabbi Hannah