“Bitter and Sweet,” Rabbi Elaine Zecher’s Shabbat Awakenings

April 3, 2026 | 16 Nisan 5786

Welcome to Shabbat Awakenings, a weekly reflection as we make our way this week toward Shabbat of Passover. You can also listen to it as a podcast.

Every bee that brings the honey
Needs a sting to be complete
And we all must learn to taste the bitter with the sweet.

Keep, oh God, the fire burning
Through the night and through the day
For the one who is returning
from so far away.

Don’t uproot what has been planted
So our bounty may increase
Let our dearest wish be granted:
Bring us peace, oh bring us peace.

In 1980, Naomi Shemer, the composer of many beloved Jewish and Israeli songs, wrote these words as part of the song, “Al Kol Eleh, For All of These.” It feels like the themes of the bitter and the sweet are woven throughout our lives these days. Shemer recognized that the personal, the national, and I would add international interconnect in ways we experience the world now.

We long to guard our families and those close to us from harm and yet, suffering and illness bring great challenge. Wars are ravaging lives, most of whom we do not know, but we see their faces and their anguish. Governmental leaders have promoted laws that serve themselves but
not necessarily their people. We want safety for Israel, for the United States, and all those who long to live in peace and wonder how much of that is threatened right now. The bitter can feel very dark.

In Israel, the recent law regarding the hanging of Palestinian terrorists as the only form of punishment seems wrong to me even as I want Israel to be safe from harm. I also fear the fanatical decision by Israel’s ultra-right to imprison anyone for up to seven years for praying at
the Kotel (the Western Wall) contrary to ultra-Orthodox standards. This bill breaks from the status quo at the Kotel, where egalitarian prayers have been held since the 1970s and where many of us have joyfully prayed. In our own country, we fear for laws promoted that categorize our own citizens as outsiders, that promote partisan judges, and that leave us with economic disasters lurking.

At the same time, there is much sweetness. The holiday of Passover reminds us of this possibility. Many gathered this past week around seder tables and took in the blessings we feel right before our eyes: friends, family, new life, sounds of children, delicious food and meaningful engagement. The lessons of the holiday of moving from degradation to dignity, of welcoming the stranger, of empathy made real, and of the potential of Elijah the prophet to herald in a time of what we imagine a better world could be lift us toward a brighter future. In Israel and in the United States, there is still joy and celebration.

We live with both the bitter and sweet and are held by the strength of a connection with one another as we strive for justice and compassion. The bitter and the sweet distinguish each other by recognizing the good and the challenges. Both are present in our lives as a paradoxical truth. My hope for us all is that the sweetness buoys and holds us even though the bitter exists.

And most of all, as Shemer expresses, “Bring us peace. Bring us peace.”

Shabbat Shalom and Happy Passover!
שבת שלום וחג שמח

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Rabbi Elaine Zecher