Rabbinic Reflections: Issue 279

October 17, 2025 - 25 Tishrei 5786

Parashat B'reishit - All of the Above

Photo by Luthfi Alfarizi on Unsplash

Dear Friends,

Two years ago, our Simchat Torah celebrations were muted and suppressed. How could we celebrate another cycle of reading our most precious heritage when thousands of our brothers and sisters had been murdered, hundreds kidnapped, and our people, within and beyond Israel, were devastated with grief, shock, and anger?

This year, the end of Sukkot brought with it, hopefully, the end of the war in Gaza, and the return to Israel of all remaining living hostages. While we know the loss and pain of October 7, 2023 and its aftermath will never disappear or dissipate, at least some of the joy we should have expended that day was returned to us this year, as we danced with our Sifrei Torah in our beloved sanctuary.

We rejoice at the return of the hostages, even as we are horrified by their physical and mental states. We celebrate the beginning of the end of the armed conflict, even as we are saddened by the sacrifices made by so many, even as we remain vigilant towards those who wrecked such murderous havoc on our people.

We are happy and sad, sad and happy, all at once.

And in my opinion, there is nothing more human, and nothing more Jewish, than that.

Rachel Goldberg-Polin gave a truly incredible speech just a few days ago, in which she invoked the words of Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) that we are commanded to read from at this season. We know the words so well, having heard and recited them at funerals and memorials:

To everything there is a season, a time for every experience under heaven:

• A time for being born and a time for dying,
• A time for planting and a time for uprooting the planted;
• A time for slaying and a time for healing,
• A time for tearing down and a time for building up;
• A time for weeping and a time for laughing,
• A time for wailing and a time for dancing;
• A time for throwing stones and a time for gathering stones,
• A time for embracing and a time for shunning embraces;
• A time for seeking and a time for losing,
• A time for keeping and a time for discarding;
• A time for ripping and a time for sewing,
• A time for silence and a time for speaking;

Rachel Goldberg-Polin, in profound sadness and brilliance, read these words, pausing after each couplet to tell us that this is a season in the history of the Jewish people for each part of each couplet. As Jews, as human beings, we are complex and multi-faceted. And in this complicated moment, mingling joy and celebration with mourning and sadness, we can and must do both in our uniquely Jewish way.

Rather than reading Ecclesiastes as a passage pointing us in a certain direction, or enforcing the one we've already chosen, it is not either/or. The answer for all of us, for where we are and where we should be, is all of the above.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Joshua Strom
Tel: 347-578-3987
rabbistrom@cbiotp.org

WANT MORE??? Click HERE!!!