Chaverim y’karim – dear friends,

With laundry going in the washing machine and two weeks of tall grass mowed, I wanted to drop a note to say how much I am looking forward to seeing folks on Friday evening for our special Shabbat dinner at 5:30! RSVPs have closed … but – services are 6:30pm (as usual) and we will have oneg to enjoy with some special wine I have brought back from Israel. Amy is baking challah as well!

I anticipate a longer column later this week or early next that details a few themes from our trip and a few outstanding organizations for you to learn more about.

In the meantime, it is quite remarkable how much Israel goes through in two weeks: massive fires in the Judaean hills that cancelled Memorial Day and Independence Day festivities; three sirens for the center of the country thanks to the Houthis’ ballistic missiles, one of which penetrated and struck near the airport, the release of the last living Israeli-American hostage, Edan Alexander, who was held by the Islamist jihadists of Hamas for 584 days, and a regional visit by the U.S. President who seems to be intentionally skipping Israel despite his having proven highly effective at securing hostage releases. We can only hope and pray Edan has the support he so desperately needs and deserves and that the remaining 58 hostages return soon and speedily among them, the bodies of four Israeli-American hostages remain in Gaza.

It is never easy for me to leave Israel and normally when I leave, I like to have my next ticket purchased or have a strong sense of when I am returning. Amy will return in July when she leads a delegation of public high school teachers from Longmeadow and halavai, we will both return next Spring. From the people we met to friends and relatives we visited, from unbelievable food to just breathing the air, it was a very good visit though there is an air of uncertainty that hovers constantly.

“My heart is in the east, though I am in the uttermost west” wrote Yehudah Halevi in Spain in 11th century. I’m just a bit further west – across the pond, as it were. Unlike Halevi, though, I/we have the good fortune to witness our people’s land in the hands of Jewish sovereignty. May our people cherish, love, support, uphold, guide, and govern with care and responsible practice for all who dwell there: Jew, Christian, Muslim, young, old, religious, secular, recent immigrant or descendant of antiquity. And as we read in Psalm 122:7, “May there be peace within your walls and serenity/shalva within your palaces.” (See the quote above at a lovely institution, Shalva, in Jerusalem. Click the picture to link to their website.)

Ken Y’hi Ratzon – May it be God’s will and may we make it our own –

Rabbi Mark Cohn