This week I’ve felt an immense sadness, pain and anger that I haven’t felt since discovering the murder of Yair Yaakov z”l in February and of course on October 7^th. The gut-punch Saturday night, the lack of sleep and seeing Hersh’s funeral early Monday morning. I give this sermon as one who felt the grieving and mourning all too closely, now leaving shiva for shloshim and ready to take the next steps.

We learned a glimpse of each of the hostages during Tuesday night’s vigil. Today I want to focus on something different-resistance. Each of these hostages resisted in their own way in his/her own way. Carmel Gat taught spiritual resistance through meditation exercises and yoga in the tunnels. She helped the others remember to stay calm during a torturous captivity, demonstrating that the one thing that cannot be taken away from you is your sense of self. Alex and Ori physically saved the lives of those they did not know before they were captured, showing their actions of selflessness. Almog tended to his girlfriend, showing the power of love. Eden kept others going through her vibrant spirit.

And then there was Hersh: Hersh Goldberg-Polin- a household name and the face of the hostages. We saw Hersh’s parents speak at major events, including both the Republican and Democratic conventions, travelling the world in order to save him. These past 11 months it felt as though his release along with the 5 with whom he was imprisoned was just around the corner. Painstakingly, it was not meant to be. At Hersh’s funeral, his mother Rachel said “you six lived together, you six died together, and now you will be remembered forever together.” His father Jon reminded us that the name Polin stands for פועלי ישועות, workers of salvation-or as I prefer to see them “miracle workers.” The hostages have become a global symbol for bringing improvement to our world. In remembering Hersh, Jon used the phrase adopted by his friends יהי זכרונו מהפכה -may his memory be a revolution. It is to that revolution that we are called now.

We need to be those miracle workers now. We CANNOT, We MUST NOT lose sight of the 101 remaining hostages in captivity. All steps must be taken towards their rescue. The ultimate value of Judaism is פקוח נפש, the saving of a life. These hostages may be beyond our reach halfway around the world but they are deeply embedded within our hearts. It is my hope and a prayer that a deal can be made to BOTH release the hostages AND keep Israel in control Gaza, badly needed so that Hamas cannot cause an October 7^th-like attack again.

Here are the actions you can take to remember these 6 and to pray for the remaining 101 in captivity:

1. If you are in Los Angeles between now and October 8 and are at least 16 years old, please go to the Nova Exhibition in Culver City, at which 5 of these 6 were taken. My best friend went when it was in New York, and she told me how powerful it is. If you cannot attend like me, commit yourself to learning about Nova-what it is about and why young people came together year after year.
2. Dedicate yourself to learning at least one story from the captured and missing who were murdered since October 7^th. Learn about their lives, their visions, their hopes and their dreams. Keep their memories alive through telling their stories.
3. Continue to pray not only with words but also with your feet, for those hostages still in captivity, including Keith Siegel and Omer Wenkert, for whom we have chairs. As Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt, founder of Zionist Rabbis, persuasively argued,[1] it’s time to change the narrative from “Bring them Home” to “Let Them Go.” I can only imagine what it felt like to say these words in the 1980s campaign to save Soviet Jewry. They might have meant something different then but their power will reverberate today. We say “Let Them Go” to demand that Egypt, Qatar, the United States and the United Nations exert pressure on the pharaoh of our day: The Islamic Republic of Iran, demanding that it pressure its proxy Hamas into releasing the hostages. In so doing, I’d like us to say the words that have impacted us for thousands of years. Please join me…LET THEM GO!!!

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[1] StandWithUs Rabbis’ United WhatsApp Group

My words at a time when there is none. Community Vigil September 3, 2024.

          I first want to thank Rabbis Mona Alfi of B’nai Israel and Steven Chester representing Congregation Beth Shalom as well as the leadership of the Sacramento Jewish Federation and Jewish Community Relations Council and Hillel of Davis and Sacramento. Your presence here speaks volumes. We are one community.

I cannot adequately describe what I felt Saturday night in words.  The closest I get is being run over time and time again by a truck. Whenever I hear of another person murdered, our hopes for their return dashed in a moment after hundreds of days in captivity, there’s nothing left to say.

  We are here tonight to come together in grief and mourning while also doing our part to get the remaining 101 hostages released. Each of us here tonight is impacted by so many things. Our feelings are genuine and authentic as they are and should be accepted free of judgment.

Tonight we are gathered in part to remember 6 precious soles: Ori Danino, Eden Yerushalmi, Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lobanov, Carmel Gat and Hersh Goldberg-Polin, originally from Berkeley, California. These 6 were among nearly 400 captured or murdered from the Nova Festival in Re’im, dubbed as “a journey of unity and of love.” Our message as a people should always be love, not hate; life, not death and destruction. I still cannot get past the fact that each and every one of those recently murdered were under the age of 40-so much potential and so many hopes and dreams falling by the wayside. The cruelty of their captors taunting the victims’ families through sending post-mortem videos and  threatening to post “last minute videos” of their lives is beyond sickening.

The question is how do we remember them? Not by how they were found Saturday night but rather by how they lived their lives! In Mishnah Avot, Rabbi Shimon said, there are three crowns: the crown of Torah, the crown of priesthood, and the crown of kingship. And the crown of a good name is superior to them all. We will remember the good names of each of these six precious souls followed by an El Malei for all who were murdered since October 7^th and the Mourner’s Kaddish.

          Then we will transition to our hope for the release of the remaining 101 hostages. We will sing אחינו, the song showing that each and every one of us is united. We will recite the prayer for those who are captured followed by התקוה, the anthem that has kept our people hopeful for numerous years.

          Today we come together to grieve and to mourn; it is my prayer that tomorrow we will come together to dance and to celebrate the remaining hostages being brought home.