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Beaten and Broken, but With Unshakeable Faith

Thursday, 26 September, 2024 - 8:53 am

Last year, we all assembled in shul on Rosh Hashanah and prayed for the year ahead. We asked for a good year, a sweet year, a year filled with health, happiness, prosperity and nachas from our children. 

Who could have imagined the horrific, monstrous onslaught we would face on Simchat Torah just three weeks later?

Could we even have conceived of our enemies surprising us, attacking us in our homes, slaughtering 1,200 Jews in cold blood, wounding thousands more, and kidnapping 252 men, women, and children? 

14,000 soldiers have since been wounded and the year-long war does not appear to be slowing down at all. The opposite—it is intensifying, with new fronts in the north. 

It’s been a year. A year of terror, fear, hope, disappointment, prayer and protest. 

It has been a year since the reawakening of Antisemitisim and the unignorable realization that we are hated all over the world. Never has it been clearer that we are a nation who dwells alone. 

But through this entire period, we have absorbed two vital lessons: 1. We need each other. 2. We need G-d. 

It has been an extraordinarily humbling year. We’ve seen firsthand that even with our mighty army we are not invincible. In fact, we are vulnerable, surrounded on all sides by enemies only too eager to join in and murder us.

At the same time, it’s been a year replete with miracles and love. We’ve been forced to dig deep within ourselves and realize how much we need one another. 

I met *Rotem last week—a soldier who came to New York with our Belev Echad program. Rotem served in the special forces and was wounded in battle, becoming paralyzed from the waist down. He also lost his left hand and is confined to a wheelchair. 

Rotem was supposed to be married last week, but he postponed the wedding. “I need another four months to do therapy to be able to walk again,” he insisted. “I promise I will walk under that chuppah!” 

Rotem has been broken and beaten but retains unshakeable faith that he will walk again. Fortunately, he has the most incredible friends who support and believe in him. 

This is the spirit of our people, Am Yisrael! We have been broken and beaten but we hold on to our hope and optimism for the future.

In a few days, we will all gather in shul again to crown G-d as our King. The thing our Father in Heaven loves most is when his children get along. This year, let us beseech G-d to send us only revealed good—good that is clear and apparent to our limited human eyes. 

May He bless us all with a shana tova—a good, sweet year with the return of our hostages, peace and healing for our people, and the coming of Moshiach and the Ultimate Redemption.

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