Yom Kippur and October 7

As Yom Kippur draws closer — it starts on October 1 — that’s Wednesday night — many of us find ourselves thinking about October 7, still another week away, but looming.

Last year, it seems like we all still were in shock. Huge federation-sponsored gatherings in both North Jersey and MetroWest brought the whole community together to try to process it.

This year, the timing of the holidays makes that impossible, and it might be that people are looking for smaller groups. The shock of October 7 has diminished, but the horror has not. The hideous fact that there are still living hostages starving in underground tunnels in Gaza, and dead hostages whose killers are holding their bodies for ransom, continues the need to find comfort and hope. That’s why so much of this paper is about October 7. It’s on people’s minds.

There’s also another subject on rabbis’ minds. It’s always true that their holiday sermons weigh heavily on many if not most if not actually all rabbis’ minds this time of year. It’s hard to say something both new and traditional, to hold the interest of the biggest crowds of the year — many regulars accompanied by the sisters and the cousins who they reckon up by dozens and the aunts, all there for the holidays — while also appealing variously to the hearts and the souls and the intellects of an assorted mass of people.

This year, it’s even tricker. Politics loom, a huge puddle of doom, and rabbis do not want to drown in it. It’s not safe to talk about American politics, and it is extremely not safe to talk about Israel, even in many shuls. Some rabbis have to worry about their contracts; the more secure still have to think about the fine line between making their congregants think Jewishly about the issues, maybe in ways they hadn’t before, and making them feel so uncomfortable that they no longer feel at home. Lines that once were jokes no longer are very funny.

But it’s also true that we’ve gotten through worse. Not in our lifetimes, it seems, except for the oldest among us, who not only lived through World War II but can remember it. But we as a people have been through so much that we will weather this too.

With real hope for the future, we hope that our readers have a fulfilling Yom Kippur, and that by the time the thrilling shofar blast that ends Neilah sounds, we will be ready for the difficult times ahead, and that we can face them with at least some hope and joy.

—JP