TBT Blog

We write again about the tragedy unfolding in Israel and Gaza. While the instinct might be to skip this message–because it has been so hard to listen to and watch the pain so many are experiencing–please read on.

It has been a month since October 7. We have reached the end of “sheloshim,” the 30 days of mourning traditionally spent remembering loved ones who die. Our tradition teaches that these 30 days are to be used to sit in our sadness–to intensely remember our beloved dead, to etch into our minds and hearts each memory and every detail of their lives. And when the 30 days end, we begin to re-integrate ourselves back to a new normal, a life that is celebrated for its beauty…yet a life without our loved ones.

Given the enormity of our tragedy, we have barely begun to mourn. How to hold in our hearts and minds the lives of 1,400 souls? How do we offer comfort to the more than 3,000 wounded? And how do we gain a new normal when 240 of our family are hostages of terrorists? At the same moment, how do we not mourn the deaths of thousands of innocent Palestinians, many of whom were children? How do we return to normal when tens of thousands on both sides have been displaced?

The simple answer is we cannot. Because life changed on October 7, in the same way that life changed for the United States on September 11, 2001. The enormity of the tragedy is overwhelming.

And still, there is another change occurring: the rapid rise of antisemitism that has manifested itself within protests and on social media.

All of which hearkens back to another date that changed everything for the world: November 9-10, 1938, also known as Kristallnacht (“the night of broken glass”). This event, which resulted in 91 deaths, is recognized as the overt beginnings of the Holocaust, which resulted in 6,000,000 Jewish souls murdered.

We write all this with heavy hearts. We know the pain our people experienced on Kristallnacht, the pain of the Shoah, and now we feel the pain of October 7, as well as the pain of the ongoing conflict–in Israel, in Gaza, and beyond.

We urge you to join us this Erev Shabbat (Friday, November 10, 6:30 pm) as we mark the anniversary of Kristallnacht and commemorate the sheloshim of those who died at the hands of Hamas.

We also encourage you to read this message from Naomi Greenspan, which captures much of the angst we, ourselves, have experienced over the last month. Perhaps it gives voice to many of the emotions coursing through you, as it did for us.

On marking the sheloshim of the October 7 tragedy, we say: “Zichronam livracha…may their memories be blessings.”