Anyone
in southern Israel
who found themselves
in the pathway
of the depraved
assailants
on October 7
a target
to be pursued
trapped
killed
mutilated
captured
assaulted
raped

Citizens
migrant workers
overseas visitors
young people
waking up
at a music festival
to a deadly dawn
families
their homes
invaded
as they slept in their beds
or sat at their breakfast tables
and then set ablaze
as in the pogroms
visited on their grandparents
and great grandparents
twelve hundred murdered
in a single day
two hundred and fifty stolen away
a nation traumatised

And then
another nation
caught
in the retaliatory backlash
day after relentless day
bombs raining down
on Gaza
destroying
lives
homes
neighbourhoods
hospitals
schools
utilities
hundreds of thousands
displaced
trapped
in a war zone
with all escape-routes
barred
denied
sufficient medical aid
food
water
punished
for the sins of leaders
who do nothing
to protect them

Sh’mini Atzeret Chanukkah
Christmas Tu Bishvat Purim
Ramadan Eid aI-Iftar Easter Pesach
Friday after Friday
Shabbat after Shabbat
Sunday after Sunday
sacred days
desecrated

What questions will we ask
this Passover
around our seder tables?
how will we respond?
feeling overwhelmed
muted
let us leave
an empty space
on the seder plate
for our pain
our anguish
and fill it
only
with our tears

Rabbi Elli Tikvah Sarah