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When writer and journalist Charles M. Blow published his memoir eleven years ago, he called it “Fire Shut Up In My Bones.”  In spite of my admiration of his work, I confess I haven’t read the book yet.  But the intense, enigmatic title has always stayed with me.  That’s what our best writers and thinkers do – give our world back to us with portrayals we sometimes understand immediately—and in other moments we aren’t quite sure.  “Fire Shut Up In My Bones” has fallen into the latter category for me.  Until now.

Until Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s residence was set on fire in the early morning hours after the first Seder.

Until Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, both passionately committed to working for peaceful coexistence of Israelis and Palestinians were gunned down in the prime of their lives outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC.

Until this past Sunday when a longstanding, peaceful walk advocating for return of the hostages still being held by Hamas was firebombed in Boulder, CO.  Among the walkers was a Holocaust survivor.

Fire in my bones.  Fire in all our bones.

These tragic killings and injuries, and the many that have preceded them and fallen between them, have left us terrified and enraged.  Anti-Semitism has always existed, but these fires that are newly ablaze, that we may have thought were more or less a thing of the past… how they are spreading now.  On our own soil.  In our nation’s capital and our own hometowns.  Throw on the gasoline of hatred, misinformation and false equivalence, and these old fires – yes, in our very bones - intertwined with our worst collective memories - burn once more.

What can we say?  What can we do?  How can we keep ourselves, our spiritual homes and communal institutions safe and joyful and proud in these times?

These are some of the questions I’ll be speaking about at services this Friday at 7:00pm.  I really hope to see you here.  If we know anything, we know this: as our prayerbook reminds us weekly, “there is no way to get from here to there except by joining hands, marching together.”

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Gutterman