“October 7, 2023,” Rabbi Elaine Zecher’s Shabbat Sermon/Shabbat Awakenings

October 4, 2024 | 2 Tishrei 5784

Welcome to Shabbat Awakenings, a weekly reflection as we move toward Shabbat. You can listen to it as a podcast here.

How shall we commemorate October 7, 2023?
How might we capture the devastation, the loss, the shock, the trauma?
How could we ever fully describe the brutality, the savagery, the evil of Hamas?

There is no poetry here.
Words will never suffice.
Nor will tears.

Remember and never forget
is how the Torah instructs us about Amalek,
Enemy of the Jewish people.
The former slaves were tired and afraid after their escape from Egypt.
Amalek did not care for their humanity or welfare.
He attacked the weakest, the most vulnerable
And allowed no escape.

Remember and never forget
How in the early hours as light began to dawn
Darkness descended.
The attack of Hamas had no concern to show humanity.
They sought harm, mutilation, rape, murder.
Terrorists–savages, brutes young and old–forfeited their own humanity.
Evil, even to their own people,
Knowing full well that harm would return with them to them.

Remember and never forget
The bravery and courage of those who fought back.
Of those who survived despite, in spite of evil.
The ones who gave their lives to protect others.
Of those held hostage, captives captured.
Death in the dark.
Whose loved ones carry their broken hearts into eternity.

Remember and never forget
How Israel held one another as they buried their dead.
Took care to care for each other
With so much unbearable pain that they bore
On one another’s shoulders.

On that day, the world cried with us.
Trying to comfort us
But solace does not come easy.

Consolation can feel empty.
For those who do not remember
And choose to forget.

On October 7, we will remember.
We will never forget.
With tear stained faces
And souls full of pain,
We will rise with the light
Of the morning out of the darkness
Of night’s continual shadow.

In the face of death, we will choose life.
They cursed themselves with their brutality,
Forever marked.
We will seek blessing.
Despite and because
It is our way.
To be strong.
To have hope.
And to remember.
Never. Ever to forget.

Shabbat Shalom!  שבת שלום

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Rabbi Elaine Zecher