Beloved Friends,
In this week’s Torah portion, Eikev, Moses speaks to our ancestors about the path before them: blessing and curse. The message is simple, yet profound — the blessings and curses of our lives are not arbitrary; they emerge from the choices we make, from the actions we take, from the ways we treat one another.
This past week, while I was in Israel, I saw with my own eyes how human choices — for good and for ill — shape the world we live in. It has been almost two years since the horrific attack of October 7th, when Hamas murdered 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped 250 more. Today, fifty hostages remain in captivity, some alive, others who have perished, their bodies still being held. The entire nation of Israel still carries the trauma of that day. PTSD is not an abstract statistic; it is written on faces, heard in the pauses of conversation, felt in the quiet moments of daily life.
And yet — in the midst of grief, the people of Israel continue to gather. They mourn. They protest. They comfort. They even celebrate. I joined in worship and witnessed laughter around Shabbat tables, saw the embrace of friends greeting one another, and felt the stubborn pulse of life. These are acts of blessing — small seeds of hope planted in soil that has seen too much blood.
But the curses are real, too. In Gaza, the curse of starvation continues to unfold. Innocent civilians suffer hunger and loss, trapped in the wake of a war they did not choose.
This week’s Torah portion asks us to see clearly: blessing and curse are not only divine pronouncements, they are human outcomes. We create them. Our choices make them real.
It is on us — Israel, the Jewish people, and the world — to act in ways that tip the scales toward blessing:
- To bring the hostages home.
- To feed the starving.
- To end the war.
Blessing comes when we choose compassion over indifference, courage over despair, and responsibility over avoidance. We cannot undo the past, but we can write the next chapter.
I hope you will join me Friday evening for our Kabbalat Shabbat worship or Shabbat morning at Torah Study when I will share more of my experience in Israel and engage in discussion.
May we be the ones who choose blessing, for ourselves, for our people, and for all who dwell in the land.
Shabbat Shalom,
