A few weeks ago, I was working with a bar mitzvah child as he prepared for his simchah. At some point, we were discussing the terrible events that had been going on in Israel this summer. After this talk, his mom pulled me aside and said to me, very simply, “It’s hard to be Jewish at this time. It’s just so hard.” I think she expressed a sentiment that we all feel as we enter this Jewish New Year. It began with the kidnapping and murder of the three Israeli boys, Naftali Fraenkel, Eyal Yifrach, and Gilad Shaar. Next, some Jew, in retaliation, decided to murder a Palestinian boy, Muhammad Abu Khdeir. And the terrible theme of this summer, along with the missiles and the world condemnation of Israel, was the murder of children and other innocents. Hundreds of children in this conflict as a result of the Hamas policy to place the innocent in as much danger as possible and use the innocent as human shields knowing the power of these deaths an...
A blog by Rabbi Gil Steinlauf