It is October 7. A day now associated with horror. A day linked—for many—to innate fear and also to resilience.
We remember the Hamas-led attacks and kidnappings of October 7, 2023. We remember those who were taken. We remember the families left behind, wondering and angry. Bereft. We remember the dead.
As the calendar marks a year since October 7, 2023, The United Church of Canada prays for the grieving loved ones of the 1,200 people killed in Hamas’s attack on Jewish communities and innocent people in Israel. It urges the immediate and unconditional release of all captives.
Every human being is made in God’s image. When we devalue the lives of others, humanity itself is diminished.
And so, this trauma of October 7—and the shame of our own failures in the 365 days since and the 75 years since the Nakba—sits heavily on us. Our siblings in humanity are devalued, their stories cut short.
In the introduction to their guided readings for Tisha b’av, a Jewish holy day commemorating the destruction of the two temples, rabbis and others from Halachic Left and All That’s Left ask:
How do we internalize that our grief for Israeli victims of October 7 is not counter to, but inextricable from, mourning the [deaths] of tens of thousands of Gazans?
What does mourning look like when we are not in the aftermath of the devastation but still in its midst? Can we confront trauma in a way that portends redemption instead of using our pain as a justification for further destruction?
None of these questions have simple answers, but, for now, we exist in a place of brokenness and rupture… [a place of] inarticulable horror.
We reckon with this dichotomy. We reckon with the unspeakable grief and trauma. We reckon with the killing of entire families and the destruction of their homes, livelihood, and land in Gaza.
God of life, justice, and hope,
The cries of those grieving in Palestine and Israel are drowned out by the guns and bombs;
and by those who say, “Peace, peace,” where there is no peace,
And no justice.
Make us instruments of your justice and peace.
For we are all made in your image.
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