Rabbi Howard Morrison

A history of resilience

The history of confronting Jew hatred with resilience goes back 4000 years to Abraham and Sarah. The stories of an ancient Pharaoh, the Hittite cemetery owner Efron, Malki Tzedek (king of Salem)  and many others point to Abraham being hated for simply being a Hebrew, but also point to Abraham being resilient and holding his ground. This has continued to be our story for four thousand years.

Our Summer season connected our calendar to these High Holy Days. The saddest day of the year Tisha B'Av provided us with a history text book of one act of Jew hatred followed by another from the destruction of ancient Jerusalem, to the Crusades, Pogroms, and Inquisition of the Middle Ages, to the Shoah, and to this very day.

Consider the following examples of Jew-hated and resilience in our history:

Imagine if you had experienced the period surrounding and including the destruction of the First Temple of Jerusalem in 586BCE. All was lost. The Babylonians had conquered Jerusalem and destroyed the holy Temple. Much of Jewry had been exiled to Babylonia. How would you have responded?

Would you have been in despair? Sarcastic at the very least? For those who believed, some fifty years after the Exile, Jews returned to Israel and began to pave the way toward a Second Temple period. Resilience won the day.

Fast forward several hundred years later. Imagine if you had experienced the period surrounding and including the destruction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem in 70CE. All was lost. The Romans had conquered Jerusalem and destroyed the holy Temple. Much of Jewry had been exiled to Babylonia and beyond. How would you have responded?

Would you have been in despair? Sarcastic at the very least? For those who believed, just decades later, Sages living in Yavneh began to sow the seeds of the Mishna and Talmud. Judaism was reimagined and reinvigorated. Judaism could and would endure without a holy Temple and anywhere in the world. Resilience won the day.

Fast forward to the Spring of 1945. Eastern European Jewry had been slaughtered in under a decade. Six million Jewish lives had been lost. How would you have responded? 

Would you have been in despair? Sarcastic at the very least? For those who believed, the State of Israel was born three years later. Soon, Jewish life thrived in Israel, North America and other parts of the globe. Resilience won the day.

Fast forward to October 7, 2023, Simchat Torah in Israel, One of the happiest days on the Jewish calendar. The unthinkable happened - 1200 lives lost on a single day, babies butchered, women raped and murdered, safe houses turned into places of horror and brutality, hundreds taken hostage. 

In a year since, Israeli lives have been lost. Israeli lives have been displaced in Southern and Northern Israel, the lives of Jews and non-Jews. Twelve Druze children were murdered on a single day playing on a soccer field. Young Israelis, Jews and non-Jews, serving in the IDF, have made the ultimate sacrifice. Jews around the world have suffered from unprecedented surges in acts of anti-Semitism with little or no support from local government, our growing concerns regarding Iran, Hezbollah, etc.

And the list goes on in almost every city and country around the world - Take Canada and Ontario, specifically: Bomb threats, pro-Hamas demonstrations in Jewish residential areas, the shooting up of a girls' yeshiva nearby, the beating up of an elderly Jew at a peaceful protest held weekly at the corner of Bathurst and Sheppard, an anti-Palestinian racism policy formed by the Toronto District School Board (No protection for Jewish students!?), the Jewish National Fund losing its charitable status by the CRA during the Summer, etc.

Would you be in despair? Sarcastic at the very least?

The Haftarah for today, the second day of Rosh Hashanah, unites the seasons of Tisha B'Av and the High Holy Days. This morning, we read a Haftarah from the Prophet Jeremiah. He was the definitive prophet who experienced the destruction of the first Temple and the exile of the Jews to Babylonia. In today's prophetic lesson, he personifies Jerusalem as the matriarch Rachel weeping over the banishment of her children from their mother's home. She refuses to be comforted because her children are gone. This year, it feels like our Haftarah speaks to the indescribable sorrow following the horrific attack of Israel on October 7th. Many of us continue to feel like Rachel in today's Haftarah, still weeping , still unable to find comfort over the loss of so many innocent souls. 

For me, the Rachel of today's Haftarah echoes Rachel Goldberg-Polin, who became a symbol of hope for the hostages and their families. For some ten months, she spoke around the globe and prayed for the welfare and survival of her son, Hersh. We all know that Hersh and five other hostages were brutally slain during the Summer. Her prayers and hopes have become transformed from her SON'S survival to beseeching the soul of her son to look after OUR survival. 

Our Haftarah, while acknowledging the pain, also points the way to our people's ability to be resilient. The Haftarah exclaims, "There is a hope for your future; your children shall return to their country." From one Rachel to the next Rachel, connected by 2500 years of pain and resilience, we cry and yet we find Tikvah in God's promise for a better future.

History has taught us to be resilient time and time again. It is challenging to believe that a season of comfort, peace, and renewal will come when we are in the midst of a perilous time.  But believe and work toward that belief are vital.

My friends - We all witnessed the latest example of resilience on Tuesday afternoon our time. Israel endured over 1800 missiles from Iran with barely a scratch. Our people not only survived. In one instance, a wedding ceremony was completed in a bomb shelter. Soon after it was safe to go outside, people went about their business getting ready for Rosh Hashanah - buying and preparing food for this holiday, enjoying the outdoors and taking selfies with each other, and more.

Resilience got us through one perilous chapter after another. Resilience will win again.

Shana Tova U'Metuka!

Rabbi Howard Morrison