A Vidui for the Children of Gaza

This Yom KippurThe holiest day of the Jewish year and the culmination of a season of self-reflection. Jews fast, abstain from other worldly pleasures, and gather in prayers that last throughout the day. Following Ne'ilah, the final prayers, during which Jews envision the Gates of Repentance closing, the shofar is sounded in one long blast to conclude the holy day. It is customary to begin building one's sukkah as soon as the day ends., I found that the standard viduiLit. Confession. A litany of one's sins that is traditionally recited on Yom Kippur, prior to one’s wedding, and on one's deathbed. was not enough. Something was missing. There was something else I felt compelled to say, a confession I needed to give voice to. I didn’t have the words then, but I do now.

In the first year of war between Hamas and , more than 10,000 children were killed in Gaza. There is no reason or rationale — not the origins of this war, not the nature of war — that we should allow ourselves to feel anything less than abject anguish at that figure. Compassion is not a finite resource, nor is heartbreak.

Among the many innocent victims of the violence on both sides, it is the children who are the most pure, born into a conflict many decades older than they were permitted to live. The Yerushalmi, the Talmud that developed in the land where these lives were cut short, teaches that to destroy a life — any life, not just a Jewish life — is to destroy an entire world. We may not be personally guilty of this cataclysmic destruction of so many worlds, but that does not absolve us. As Rabbi Joshua Heschel said, “few are guilty, but all are responsible.”

Today, on Yom Kippur, we take responsibility by reciting this acrostic according to the Arabic alphabet. An acrostic is a poetic means of hinting at a whole; these 28 children, from Ibrahim (‘alef) to Yahya (ya’), represent a tiny fraction of total loss. The Gazan poet Mosab Abu Toha reminds us that it is not enough to think of the victims as numbers. Each had a name, even if only for a day, even if only for a few hours.

Ibrahim Muhammad Hassan Al-Sabakhi, Badr al-Din Badr Muhammad al-Amrain, Tala Samir Salama Saad, Thaer Shadi Fawaz Tabji*, Jamil Nijm Jamil Nijm, Hazem Muhammed Ali Salem, Khaled Jabr, Dalia Yasser Nimr al-Nabahin, Zikra Hamoudeh Muhrez Al-Nammam, Rama Ashraf Tayseer Al-Herbawi, Zeina Ziad Adel Nashbat, Siwar Almadhoun, Sham Muhammad Montaser Shaaban Halasa, Saba Muhammad Imad Shalaq, Dhiya Saeed Anan Tanbura, Talal Mohammed Ahmed Al Rashidi, Dhafer Ayoub Dhafer Al-Halou, Omar Almadhoun, Ghina Alkrunz, Fatima Ramzi Subhi Al-Ajl Qais Raed Rafiq Dweikat, Carmel Hamid Khaled Al-Bayaa, Layan al-Shaer, Momen Muhammed Ahmed al-Nairab, Nour Islam Khader Musa, Hala Rushdi Nasser Al-Ghazali, Waseem Ahmed Mohammed Al-Nabih, Yahya Awad Hamdan Farhat.

* Killed in Jenin, the West Bank

Ibrahim Muhammad Hassan Al-Sabakhi (5 years old)

Badr al-Din Badr Muhammad al-Amrain (1 year old)

Tala Samir Salama Saad (8 years old)

Thaer Shadi Fawaz Tabji (17 years old)

Jamil Nijm Jamil Nijm (4 years old)

Hazem Muhammed Ali Salem (9 years old)

Khaled Muhammad Fathi Jabr (7 years old)

Dalia Yasser Nimr al-Nabahin (13 years old)

Zikra Hamoudeh Muhrez Al-Nammam (11 years old)

Rama Ashraf Tayseer Al-Herbawi (12 years old)

Zeina Ziad Adel Nashbat (2 years old)

Siwar Almadhoun (13 years old)

Sham Muhammad Montaser Shaaban Halasa (7 years old)

Saba Muhammad Imad Shalaq (0 years old)

Dhiya Saeed Anan Tanbura (4 years old)

Talal Mohammed Ahmed Al Rashidi (8 years old)

Dhafer Ayoub Dhafer Al-Halou (6 years old)

Omar Almadhoun (9 years old)

Ghina Alkrunz (8 years old)

Fatima Ramzi Subhi Al-Ajl (16 years old)

Qais Raed Rafiq Dweikat (14 years old)

Carmel Hamid Khaled Al-Bayaa (1 year old)

Layan al-Shaer (10 years old)

Momen Muhammed Ahmed al-Nairab (5 years old)

Nour Islam Khader Musa (10 years old)

Hala Rushdi Nasser Al-Ghazali (4 years old)

Waseem Ahmed Mohammed Al-Nabih (9 years old)

Yahya Awad Hamdan Farhat (11 years old)

إبراهيم محمد حسن السباخي

بدر الدين بدر محمد العمرين

تالا سمير سلامة سعد

ثائر شادي فواز طبجي

جميل نجم جميل نجم

حازم محمد علي سالم

خالد جبر

داليا ياسر نمر النباهين

ذكرى حموده محرز النمنم

رما أشرف تيسير الهرباوي

زينة زياد عادل نشبت

سوار المدهون

شام محمد منتصر شعبان حلاسة

صبا أحمد علي القزاز

ضيا سعيد عنان طنبوره

طلال محمد أحمد الرشيدي

ظافر ايوب ظافر الحلو

عمر المدهون

غنى الكرنز

فاطمة رمزي صبحي العجل

قيس رائد رفيق دويكات

كرمل حامد خالد البياع

ليان الشاعر

مؤمن محمد أحمد النيرب

نور اسلام خضر موسى

هاله رشدي ناصر الغزالي

وسيم أحمد محمد النبيه

يحيى عوض حمدان فرحات

A Vidui for the Children of Gaza

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