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Bring Them Home

Writer's picture: Shira Lankin Sheps, MSWShira Lankin Sheps, MSW

For those who are trying to understand what it’s like in Israel right now, and how Jews around the world feel about the hostages…

Most of us have never met a single one.

We may be connected in ways we don’t even know- through our networks, communities, or souls- the Jewish world is small and we are one nation with one heart.

Since October 8, 2023- we have not been able to wrap our minds around how we got here, and how we were going to get them all home.

This hostage crisis has been our worst national nightmare come true.

So we do everything in our power to stay tethered to them-

We tell their stories at our Shabbat tables and leave plates waiting for them. The streets are littered with empty chairs with their faces on them.

We make their favorite recipes in our kitchens- and listen to their families tell us who they really are- not just news items.

We sit next to their faces at the bus stop, walk by their names graffitied into our ancient stones.

We listen to their mother’s cry, their children weep, their families hope…

We dream of them- hellish images and videos we’ve seen, the worst we can imagine, we wonder and toss and turn and whisper to them when we can’t sleep.

We pray. We write. We cry. We beg. We ask questions that no one answers.

And we do not understand how we got here or how this all ends.

We are holding our breath to know who will be coming home alive and who we will be grieving.

We are terrified to hear the truth about what has happened to them.

What we couldn’t stop.

What took too long.

All we want to see is these precious people who we have all adopted as our own, back with their people.

Back with us.

These psychological mind games of who and when and how.

It’s unbearable.

So now we go into Shabbat- with their names on our lips and hope in our hearts and fear in our bellies and we wait.

Tonight I made challah, because that’s what Jewish women do when they need to pray.

We sustain our families with bread.

We bless the dough that will sanctify our tables.

We offer a sacrifice of warmth and love and we hope it’s enough.

God should bring them home.

Create abundant miracles of healing for the hostages, their families, and our people.

May our prayers arouse God’s compassion and mercy.

May all our hostages be sitting at their Shabbat tables next week.



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