The one year mark of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza has come in the middle of the High Holidays for Jewish people.
Rosh Hashana began Wednesday, Oct. 2, at sundown, marking the Jewish New Year. Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, begins Oct. 11.
WBUR’s Weekend Edition spoke with senior Rabbi Karen Thomashow, of Temple Isaiah in Lexington, about how she is helping her congregation through this somber time.
Highlights from this interview have been lightly edited for clarity.
Interview Highlights
On processing all that has happened over the past year:
“We are in a time of crisis, and a time of crisis is not necessarily a time for clarity.
“… It’s a time for taking care of one another, taking care of ourselves, and being … sensitive and thoughtful to all those around us. As I [prepared] for my sermons this year, I focused on the spiritual message and the moral message, and less about the particular political message because I think there would be a lot of hubris in thinking that there is clarity at this time.
“I believe that we deserve and need to be quite sensitive about what we’re experiencing and our emotions in particular.”
On how conversations have changed at Temple Isaiah throughout the year:
“I think that the conversations have changed as the situation in Gaza and Israel has changed, as the situation in Lebanon and in the north of Israel has changed, as the conversation among political leaders in the U.S. has changed.
“There have been so many ups and downs in this past year and I believe that there’s not an excellent way to describe how it’s changed, but rather to acknowledge that it has changed and ebbed and flowed, and I believe it’s going to continue to do so.”
On her spiritual message to congregants on Rosh Hashana:
“My sermon for Rosh Hashanah is the following: ‘There is a beautiful consonance between Hebrew and English when it comes to the word for strength. We know that strength is a synonym of power, and in English when we say the word potential, it has the root word of potency in it. And within our potential is strength, and I believe that our strength is in a potential state.
“And so right now we might feel powerless. As Jewish Americans in particular, we might feel powerless about a whole host of things in our civic and in our personal lives. And yet, there is — within us — strength. We have the potential to have a better year ahead.’
“I believe it is a message of hope. Yet I noticed that I didn’t use the word hope once in my sermon. I think that’s because that might feel a little cliche, though beautiful. It felt really important to look at the word in Hebrew and in English, and recognize that actually our potential might be hidden, but it is within each of us, and there is a possibility for things to be stronger and better in the year to come.”
On the direct effects of Oct. 7 on Temple Isaiah families:
“Some of our children in their schools locally are experiencing some of that anti-Semitism, some of the hate rhetoric or the fear. And others, in terms of adults, I think are feeling the concerns and it’s impacted everyone.”
On counseling families navigating different viewpoints about Israel’s response:
“Many families have many different viewpoints represented in different ways among different family members. And it’s been … important that we’ve helped support several perspectives and also that we’ve supported families who are feeling that there may not be a safe or an easy space at home to have these conversations and to deal with the emotions and the feelings.
“Since Oct. 7, I believe that our being together — with the differences of opinions within families and even between families — will help us remind one another that we are one community and that we share a number of overlapping concerns.”
A message for those outside of the congregation:
“For those who are concerned about how the Jewish community is doing, how Jewish neighbors are doing, and Jewish individuals perhaps in your family or in your neighborhoods or in your workplaces are doing, I think the most meaningful way in which to find that out is to ask personally.
“The action of asking how someone is doing right now within the Jewish community has been met with so much positivity. And I know that a lot of members of the Jewish community feel isolated at this time, and that gesture of checking in on friends and neighbors and colleagues who are Jewish is really so, so meaningful.
“That’s one message. The second message is, I think at this time it’s so important to recognize that we shouldn’t assume how an individual feels about the conflict. We shouldn’t assume how a community or a congregation feels about the conflict. I’m finding that when I have real conversations with folks inside and outside of my community, that so many individuals recognize that we actually can have a conversation about this, and that we can continue to have relationships, regardless of if all of our beliefs are understood, or if all of our beliefs are shared.”
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