Have Faith in the Jewish Spirit

The other day I was picking what will probably be the last of my garden’s cherry tomatoes. It was a rather inconsequential harvest. Ten tomatoes. My mind wandered away from what I had hoped to be the restorative power of gardening to a more bountiful harvest in another place and time. I recalled traipsing through the tomato fields of a kibbutz near the Gaza border. Their cherry tomatoes were the best I had ever tasted.

Today, I can no longer savor their sweetness. Kibbutzniks are murdered. On Kibbutz Beeri alone one out of every ten members are dead. Field workers from Thailand and students from Nepal killed as well. In all 1,300 were murdered. 3000 injured. 150 taken hostage. We grieve for the dead. We pray for those injured—and the countless more traumatized. We hope for the hostages’ safe return.

The sheer inhumanity of Hamas is difficult to comprehend. The terrorists’ barbarity is indescribable…

This post continues on The Times of Israel.