Dear Beth Am Family,
This morning, as we all are waking up to the horrific tragedy which took place in Las Vegas, two things keep coming into my mind.
The first is that I am reminded of my Kol Nidrei message about the special gift of “choice” which God implants within all of us. As the Yom Kippur Torah portion reads, “I place before you life and goodness, blessing and curse. Please choose life.” This morning has taught us the ugly side of this gift. While we want to choose life and blessing, I cannot escape the reality that some people will choose the other choice. While these actions might cause us to feel scared and even retract into our cocoons, we should combat this horrific action with our own actions of love and blessing. Now, perhaps more than ever, we need to commit ourselves to bringing acts of loving kindness into this world to fight against those who choose evil and despicable acts.
Secondly, as I see these images from Vegas flash across the screen, my thoughts drift to fear and questions of safety for my family. Then, I am reminded of the words Moses said to Joshua as he sent Joshua out to lead the people, “Chazak v’ematz —Be Strong and be resolute.” At the dawn of the new age, Moses tells Joshua to have the strength and courage to go forward, because they both knew the people didn’t always make the right choices. Moses gave those words because he didn’t want the evil do’ers to win.
So too, should we apply the same words in our hesitations to begin our day. We need to be chazak v’ematz. We need to be strong and resolute. Though our inclination might be to cower and stay inside, we must show the evil do’ers of this world that we will not let them disrupt our lives. We will be resolute! We will look out for the danger, but I also we will be strong by continuing our routines.
Our thoughts go out to the families who have lost loved ones and our prayers of refuah sh’leimah (complete healing) go out to those injured.
B’Shalom,
Rabbi Robert Weiner
P.S. Please consider spending time with the community this Friday evening as we celebrate Sukkot, a holiday of thankfulness for all of the blessings in our lives. This special Family Sukkot Service will be at 7 pm this Friday night.
