Ariel, Kfir, and Oded have returned to Israel in caskets. Our hearts are shattered. We must allow give ourselves time to mourn.
We’re also filled with rage over the murder of these beautiful lives and the lives of the other hostages we have lost. Add to this the fact that, upon investigation by Israeli authorities, it was determined that Shiri Bibas’ remains, which were returned by Hamas yesterday, did not belong to the Ariel and Kfir’s mother. Where is Shiri? Where is the world’s outrage over this insanity? We need to give ourselves permission to feel and process our rage responsibly. We need to allow this rage to empower us, to push us to find our bold, strong, loud voices and use these voices to champion the Jewish people in Israel, here at home, and across the planet.
We also need to live beautiful Jewish lives. This seems so hard given what we’re feeling right now, but each of us is obligated to do just this. Hamas wants to crush us all. They want Judaism to be obliterated. Their brutality, coupled with their psychological warfare, is extremely powerful. Their evil has permeated our lives and is dragging us down and tearing us apart. We must fight this as hard as we can. We need each other, our community, and our Judaism. While we might feel inclined to crawl up in a ball and weep and/or allow hate to fill our hearts, we must find a way to move past these very understandable emotions and actively seek the beauty that is out there and the richness that makes up our tradition. By doing so, we will honor the lives and legacies of Ariel, Kfir, Oded, and all the others whose lives were ended by evil. With courage and strength, we must embrace the antithesis of this evil, the gift of life. We must embrace this gift for those who were denied it and use this gift to defeat those who seek to strip it from us all.
One way that we will be embracing life here at RSBI is by planting two small orange trees in memory of Ariel and Kfir (orange has become the color associated with the red-headed Bibas children and their mom), a larger orange tree as a symbol of their parents Yarden and Shiri, and a lemon tree in memory of Oded and all the other hostages who have been killed (yellow, of course, is the color associated with the hostages). We want the children growing up in our community, to be able to pick oranges and lemons from these trees, incorporating Ariel, Kfir, Oded and all the others into their young lives. We hope you too will get a chance to enjoy the fruit from these trees as they flourish on our grounds. Perhaps one day, we will be able to welcome Yarden and, Gd willing, Shiri, to our community and take them to the trees.
When we see something beautiful in nature, Judaism teaches us to say the following blessing:
Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech Ha’Olam, oseh maasei v’reishit.
We praise You, Eternal God, Sovereign of the universe, who makes the works of creation.
Right now, considering all the emotions filling us, it might be hard to say these words. In time, however, I look forward to standing with you before our orange and lemon trees and saying this blessing with you.
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