Jewish academic and Hebrew scholar Irene Lancaster reflects on the anniversary of the October seventh terrorist attack on Israel.
We have just finished celebrating Rosh Hashana and begin the 10-day period between Jewish New Year and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, when G-d judges us.
Other Jewish festivals happen at full moon and last in Israel for in the future only. Rosh Hashana takes place on the darkest period of the month and lasts for 2 days. It is the time of biggest peril and biggest possibility.
Rosh Hashana is about sacrifice and difficult childbirth. In Genesis, when Sarah learns that Abraham took her son Isaac to be sacrificed, she passes away. She herself gave birth to him in very old age and calls him Isaac – laughter – since the whole notion of giving birth at her age is laughable.
We examine Hannah who’s taunted for lack of youngsters but then, within the Book named after him, gives birth to the prophet Samuel who will go on to decide on the primary monarch in Israel.
But in Jeremiah 31, Rachel will all the time weep for her children, as she does also today.
Even the blowing of the shofar 100 times in the course of the Rosh Hashana service reminds us of the prophet Deborah in Judges 5, who known as to cope with the Canaanite conqueror, Sisera.
As Jews we usually are not allowed to overcome the death of the enemy but are as a substitute encouraged to be grateful to G-d. And in her song of gratitude, Deborah notes that Sisera’s mother whimpered over the death of her son and this sound is reflected by the plaintive sound of the shofar at Rosh Hashana.
The sound of the shofar nullifies the cruelty of Sisera and his mother and brings G-d’s compassion upon us.
Today we’ve got latest Sarahs, Hannahs, Rebeccas and Deborahs amongst us in Israel. We have women who’ve contributed to the military and intelligence services in modern Israel, who run battalions and man planes. We have women who devised the pagers and other mechanisms which rid the world of murderous terrorists, just as Deborah conquered Sisera, and we even have record numbers of youngsters born in Israel this yr.
After an extended gap I visited Israel twice this yr. I used to be struck by the massive cruelty towards Jewish passengers by airport staff on this country, and the sensation of indescribable wellbeing when touching down in war-torn Israel.
In Jerusalem I met the doulas and others who had taken care of my daughter displaced from the north due to the war and marvelled on the kindness of strangers in Jerusalem who fed them for 3 weeks after the birth of my granddaughter.
A Christian friend of a few years standing just wrote to me that he will probably be fasting on October 7 and said that the birth of my granddaughter in Israel gives life and hope in a time of destruction.
This is the message of Rosh Hashana – even on the darkest times when all appears to be night and barren, there may be all the time a glimmer of hope that brings joy to the world.
May we hope that the brand new yr brings much needed good government to the world, that the forces of evil are destroyed and that the sounds of song and laughter proceed to be heard on the streets of Jerusalem and throughout the world.
