Go to a Synagogue This Shabbat

We are all heartbroken over the horrific shooting at the Chabad of Poway on April 27, six months to the day after the shooting at Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.

We grieve the tragic death of Lori Gilbert-Kaye, who was a pillar of her community and who heroically gave her life to protect her rabbi. We are inspired by the courage of Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, who even after he was shot and wounded continued to preach a message of optimism and courage to his followers. We pray for little 8-year-old Noya Dahan, injured in the shooting, whose family moved to the U.S. from Sderot, an Israeli town on the Gaza border bombarded regularly by Hamas rockets, hoping for a quieter, more peaceful life here. We pray for healing for Rabbi Goldstein and all those who were injured physically and those who are emotionally traumatized by this anti-Semitic act of violence and hatred. We pray for the parents who were frantically searching for their children and for the frightened children hiding and huddled beneath chairs in their house of prayer. We pray for safety for our people everywhere. And in the wake of unspeakable acts of hatred committed in synagogues, churches and mosques, we pray for all people of faith who seek nothing more than to worship God in peace.

When will it end?

When will sanity return?

Throughout our history, prayer has never been a passive activity. Prayer has always been an act of defiance. It was so for Jews who continued to study and to teach and to pray in defiance of the Roman ban on Torah study, it was so for Jews in Spain during the Inquisition who prayed and practiced in secret. It is so for us today. Coming together to synagogue is taking a stand that we choose faith over fear, that we see ourselves as blessed not cursed even in the face of rising anti-Semitism. Prayer doesn’t end in synagogue. Prayer fills us with the courage to speak out, to stand up, to rally, to teach, to preach and to pass laws that will transform our society and our world. Those who offer lip service to “hopes and prayers” don’t understand the radical power of prayer.

Last Shabbat, I was in synagogue sitting beside my longtime congregant and dear friend Louis Sneh. Louis and I both came to pray the Yizkor service remembering our departed loved ones. Louis, who is 92 and a survivor of Auschwitz, sighed in grief for his family and his entire community who were slaughtered in the Holocaust.

After Yizkor, the somber mood of the service gave way to the hopeful words of the Ashrei prayer: “Blessed are those who enter Your house, God.”

As we chanted those words, an air of hope descended on all of us mourners. Yes, sitting here in God’s house is a blessing, I thought. At that moment, Louis turned to me and said,

“Naomi, can you believe we prayed these same words in Auschwitz?”

I said, “Yes, I can believe that.”

Prayer has always strengthened our resolve, even in the most horrific situations.

Little did we know that our conversation was taking place at the very moment when the shooter entered Yizkor services at the Chabad of Poway. “Blessed are those who enter Your house to pray.”

Today is Yom HaShoah. Together we will honor the memory of the Six Million at Nashuva this Friday night. And May 9 is Yom HaAtzmaut, Israel Independence Day. We will celebrate Israel’s birthday as well this Friday night with songs of hope and peace.

Together we will transform hate into love, fear into hope, and sadness into joy.

“Blessed are those who enter Your house, God.”

I hope you will go to your nearby synagogue this Shabbat and experience the blessing of courage, of hope, of defiance and of love.

Blessings to you, Amen

Naomi Levy is the founder and rabbi of the Los Angeles-based Jewish spiritual community Nashuva.