What is the response when experiencing answered prayers? When our living hostages were released from Hamas’ tortures, it felt as if our prayers were answered.
You will often see congregants come to the bimah for an aliyah to the Torah as they “bench gomel.” This prayer occurs after surviving a car accident or illness, sometimes coming home after a long, difficult journey. The prayer translates as: “Blessed are You, Lord our God, ruler of the world, who rewards the undeserving with goodness, and who has rewarded me with goodness.”
But I don’t want to pretend for a second that we are the ones who survived October 7th. Benching gomel doesn’t seem right.
There is a blessing in which you thank God for experiencing a miracle in a particular place: “Blessed are You, Lord our God, ruler of the world, who performed for me a miracle in this place.” But this, too, as I sit in Los Angeles, not in Israel—not in Gaza, this prayer also, just doesn’t fit.
For a moment, I am going to bring a piece of Hannukah into October. Because remember, on the first night of Hannukah, we recite two additional blessings to the regular lighting of the candles.
These are the blessings that fit this moment: A new ritualistic innovation for this time in which, I believe, we have experienced answered prayers:
Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha’olam, she-asah nisim la’avoteinu bayamim hahem bazman hazeh.
Blessed are you, Lord our God, ruler of the world, who performed wonderous deeds for our ancestors at this season.
But avoteinu can also be translated to our fathers, or I might extend it further—very loosely translating avoteinu to our family, which slightly changes the meaning of the blessing.
My translation: Praised are you, Lord our God, ruler of the world, who performs wondrous deeds for our family in this season. God, thank you for performing a miracle for our hostages, our brothers and our sisters, our family.
And finally, the blessing of Shehehiyanu:
Blessed are You, Lord our God, ruler of the world, who grants us life, sustains us and enables us to reach this moment—the moment of return for those that have been held captive, who have been taken away for two painful, devastating, horrendous years. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
We hope our prayers will continue to be answered as we await the return of the hostages that are deceased, in need of proper burial, and reunion with loved ones.
May we continue to see our prayers answered in our time.
Amen. Shabbat Shalom.
Rabbi Nicole Guzik is senior rabbi at Sinai Temple. She can be reached at her Facebook page at Rabbi Nicole Guzik or on Instagram @rabbiguzik. For more writings, visit Rabbi Guzik’s blog section from Sinai Temple’s website.
