Three Years After October 7

Three years ago today, on October 7, 2023, Jews around the world, who were meant to celebrate their love for Judaism and for the Torah (Simchat Torah), were instead horrified by the news that Hamas had attacked Israel.

As the hours passed, the enormity of what had happened became clearer. Second only to the Holocaust, October 7 became the deadliest day in modern Jewish history.

For many Israelis, for families directly touched by that day, and for us, there is a “before” and an “after.”

The years since have brought suffering on top of suffering: Israeli and Palestinian, Jewish and Muslim, soldiers and civilians, parents and children. We have watched a terrible conflict unfold, and that conflict is not only in the Middle East. Synagogues and Jewish communities have been targeted and attacked, as antisemitic acts continue to rise.

There is a line in the Psalms: “Seek peace and pursue it.” Peace is not described as something we simply wish for. We are told to pursue it, just as we are told to pursue justice. We keep searching for peace even when it feels impossibly distant, and especially when it feels impossibly distant.

On this third anniversary, I find myself praying not only for remembrance, but for imagination: the imagination to believe that the future does not have to look like the past three years.

May the memories of those murdered on October 7 be a blessing.

May those whose lives were shattered find comfort and healing.

May Israelis and Palestinians alike know days without sirens, bombs, fear, or mourning.

And may we never allow hatred to convince us that another human being’s suffering does not matter.

Oseh shalom bimromav, hu ya’aseh shalom aleinu, v’al kol Yisrael, v’al kol yoshvei tevel.

May the One who makes peace in the heavens make peace for us, for all Israel, and for all who dwell on earth.

And may that peace come soon.

-Rabbi Linder