God said, “It is not good for man to be alone.”
And we Jews know this better than anyone because we are always
alone.
The world proves it to us in every generation.
In every expulsion,
In every pogrom,
In the unspeakable horror of the Shoah,
And, now, in every war.
We are
Alone.
We have always known it,
God told AvrahamAbraham is the first patriarch and the father of the Jewish people. He is the husband of Sarah and the father of Isaac and Ishmael. God's covenant - that we will be a great people and inherit the land of Israel - begins with Abraham and is marked by his circumcision, the first in Jewish history. His Hebrew name is Avraham., “Your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not their own.”
But, as with the death of a loved one,
no amount of preparation is enough
to prepare for the reality of being
alone.
Attacked out of nowhere,
over 1000 civilians killed,
hundreds of hostages taken.
If such atrocities were done to any other country,
the world would mourn with them,
would pray for the hostage’s safe return.
But most of the hostages were Jews.
So, what does the world do?
It defaces and tears down the posters,
it says that “colonizer” children deserved their fate,
it attacks Jewish students at vigils.
If the world stayed silent that would be bad enough,
but, no, they did not give us even that courtesy.
because Jewish blood is just not as red.
And again we are
alone.
When others were oppressed, we marched.
When others were treated unfairly, we wrote letters.
When we saw injustice, we donated money to bring change.
And we did not do it expecting anything in return.
But, still, it would be nice if they were with us now
and we were not, yet again,
alone.
At least Israelis know who their enemies are,
in the Diaspora it is more confusing.
And maybe all of this is a reminder to remember,
“Not in any man do I put trust,
nor on any angel do I rely –
only on the God of heaven
Who is the God of truth.”
We must remember,
even when it is incredibly difficult,
God is with us.
We are with each other.
We are not alone.
We will do what we have always done.
We will survive.
Together.
Kol Yisrael arevim zeh ba-zeh
All IsraelLit. ''the one who struggles with God.'' Israel means many things. It is first used with reference to Jacob, whose name is changed to Israel (Genesis 32:29), the one who struggles with God. Jacob's children, the Jewish people, become B'nai Israel, the children of Israel. The name also refers to the land of Israel and the State of Israel. is responsible for one another.
