Shabbat Sermon: Fight for your Heart with Rav Hazzan Aliza Berger

From the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for Life

Ever since October 7, I have been living in an anxiety-filled, doom-driven stupor. All day, from the moment I wake up until I go to bed at night, I check my news apps compulsively and obsessively, worried that there will be some new development that will rock my world the way that horrible attack did. At night, I delve deeper. I doom scroll. I read every new article I can find. I search for stories and testimonies I haven’t read yet. We sleep-trained the baby, so now he mostly sleeps through the night (thank goodness), but I’m still waking up every few hours just to check, to make sure nothing has drastically changed.

In the morning, every morning, Solomon and I have the same conversation. Solomon shares his concern about how much I am marinating in all of this. I share how essential it feels to know what is happening. After all, if I don’t read the paper, how would I know that Oakland is having a teach-in where teachers have been given lesson plans that include books for kindergarteners with pages like “I is for Intifada, Intifada is Arabic for rising up for what is right, if you are a kid or a grown-up! ” How would I know that 93 members of the House refused to acknowledge that anti-Zionism is Antisemitism . If I am not up to speed with what is happening in the world and what is being said about it, how will I possibly engage with young adults who write to me that they aren’t sure they can come to Yisod anymore because they are decidedly pro-Palestine. How will I help young adults to process what is happening and to maintain their connection to Israel if I don’t know what they’re reading and seeing and responding to?