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Communal Tragedy

Memorial wall with photos and plaques honoring Yitzhak Rabin at Tel Aviv assassination site.

As individuals, we all know pain and loss. It is the rare person who escapes sorrow. But when one of us hurts, others are there to offer comfort. Communal tragedy is different. When something bad happens to us as a community—whether that is a school, a town, a people, or a country—we struggle to figure out how to tend to our own wounds while taking care of each other. Drawing on compassion, empathy, justice, and love, we can bring out the best in each other, and perhaps, find a theology of hope in the midst of despair.

Latest Rituals

“May we not be afraid / To act big and save the world.”
a person stands looking into a sky full of pink and green clouds
“I pray for peace in every heart / In every living thing”
sailboat on the ocean with stars above
“I cradled your / black-inked letters, letters overflowing with infinity…”
fire burning against a black sky
“When will You lie us down in peace? When will these hakafot of violence end?”
A person sits in meditation looking into the sunrise
a withered Torah scroll
“Inspire them to turn their swords into plowshares, / to turn their callousness into empathy.” 
an activist holds a sign that says Shalom and Salaam
“Bring them home. /I will be here Waiting / Ready / For their return, like a tidal wave.”
woman facing the desert sky
“Loved ones and friends, and / strangers– / in a blink, in a flash, forever lost. / This day, today…”
torn pink paper heart on a string
“The cries that carry / from one end  of the earth / to the other.”
tree in the sinai desert
“To our friends and family / From the windswept Golan / To the sands of the Arava: / We hold you in our hearts”
footsteps in sand

The Reconstructionist Network

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The Reconstructionist Network