Message From The Rabbi

Rabbi Spike Anderson

Dear Temple Emanu-El,

I’m writing this message on Friday morning, knowing that you will not read it until it is sent out on Monday.

We all spent last night worried and scared as our Israeli family huddled in bomb shelters preparing for the expected Iranian reprisal.

The IDF’s preemptive strike on Iranian nuclear and military capabilities was justified and existentially necessary, but we know that more war, even justified, is horrible and dangerous. 

As I write these words, additional airstrikes are predicted, and I do not know what the world will look like just two days from now as you read these words.

There are times in my life, when I am experiencing extraordinary happiness, or sorrow, that I literally am at a loss for words. Meaning that I ‘feel’ so deeply that my words leave me.

Instead, I experience an ‘ache’ that I feel in my stomach and heart, that seems to yearn to be filled (or expressed) only by prayer.

In Judaism, we speak about the three types of prayer: Request (Bakkashah), Thanks (Toda’ah), and Praise of God (Hoda’ah).  If you think about it, this makes sense, and you can probably place any prayer that you have said (including spontaneous prayer) into one of these three categories.

When we woke up this morning to hear the news of the stunningly successful Israeli military operations, incredibly precise and effective, involving years of preparation, I was again lost for words.  Instead, predictably, I felt a deep and profound need to pray.

Please God, continue to spread Your sukhat shalom, your protective canopy of peace, over all the inhabitants of Israel.  

Thank You, God, for the IDF’s success in setting back Iran’s nuclear capabilities, and allowing these incredibly complicated operations to work.  Millions of lives have been saved.   And thank You, our Creator, who has allowed us to be part of an incredible, resilient, people who again and again experience Your miracles.

May You be praised, Compassionate One, for your embrace, and for allowing us to be here together on this day.