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Kosi Revaya.  That’s a line from Psalm 23 which means “my cup runs over.”  I would amend that to “our cup” this week, as the last of the Israeli hostages held in underground Hamas tunnels in deplorable conditions have finally been freed.  To watch them reunite with their loved ones has been to truly witness that cup filling up and spilling over.  These are families who fought for the return of their loved ones for two long years, not knowing if they would see or hold them again, but never giving up.  And then there are the families that will not know that joy.  We await the remains of their relatives’ bodies for proper burial with them.

Even the most joyful cups contain notes of bitterness and questions.

What happens next?  If a new Middle East is truly to be reconfigured, how will that process begin?

Will both sides and outside officials be committed and accountable for the long haul?

Will the floodgates of worldwide anti-Semitism that broke open over the course of this heartbreaking war shift now, even if only a bit?

Can we who have learned hard lessons about respectful disagreement hold onto the values that allow for it?

And what are some ways we can simply be with the joy that IS right now, before leaping to the next questions?  That time will come.

The joy that is can be heard in the brokenness and the wholeness all at once, of reunited families weeping their Shehechiyanu.

The joy that is can be felt – if we make space for it – in understanding that we are living out the words of Psalm  126: “Those who sow in tears will reap in joy.”

The joy that is can be witnessed in our upcoming Torah portion, Bereishit, which tells the story of God’s creation of this beautiful, beleaguered world.  Not in one fell swoop, but each day one more miracle.  One more element that God called good.

As we and our Israeli brothers and sisters to whom we are inexorably tied stand on the precipice of beginning again, let us help each other to remember that today is our only certainty and tomorrow is not promised to anyone.  I don’t know that living each day as though it were our last is realistic, or even healthy.  But in the name of cultivating stillness, seeking wholeness and reaping in joy, there just may be something to be said for living each day as though it is our first.

All are warmly invited to welcome Shabbat together at our family service tonight at 6:30pm.

With hope and blessings,

Rabbi Rebecca Gutterman