August 2025
Dear Friends,
We are in agony as we continue to confront the staggering and relentless costs of war borne by the people of Israel and the people of Gaza.
Last week, we marked Tisha B’Av – a day set aside to commemorate and reflect on the long history of destruction and trauma experienced by the Jewish people. Traditionally on this holiday we read Eicha (Lamentations), which gives voice to the deepest pain, both personal and collective, that a People can face. The text lays bare the full weight of human suffering, returning again and again to images of hunger:
בְּנַפְשֵׁ֙נוּ֙ נָבִ֣יא לַחְמֵ֔נוּ מִפְּנֵ֖י חֶ֥רֶב הַמִּדְבָּֽר
“We risk our very lives to get our bread, in the face of the sword of the wilderness.” (Lamentation 5:9)
This year and in real time, we are witnessing these words take form on the faces of the countless human beings starving in Gaza, and on the faces of hostages, including Evyatar David and Rom Braslavski, dying as they wait for bread. We struggle not only because of the suffering done to us, but especially because off the suffering done by us. We feel deeply connected to Israel and to the Jewish people. And it’s precisely that connection that calls us to account.
Amidst our internal transition at Micah, our newly composed rabbinic team has not yet had the chance to fully process this moment together. And yet, as we return in the coming weeks, we feel the urgent demand to confront how we live out our sacred values.
There is much more to say, and we will continue to wrestle with this humanitarian crisis as we try to understand both how to bear witness and what our responsibility must be. But for now, we simply want to say: we are heartbroken, and we are here, with you, trying to live out the values we hold sacred. We invite you to share your thoughts and struggles with us at shma@templemicah.org or to reach out to any of us directly, to help inform how we engage with these issues together.
For those of you who were not at services last Shabbat, we want to share an excerpt from the recent statement of the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism which our interim rabbi, Kari Tuling, read aloud:
While we must address the needs of the many Israeli citizens suffering as a result of the war… we must not ignore the suffering of innocent civilians in Gaza who are not involved in the fighting. In the face of Hamas’s cruelty and inhumanity, and alongside our unequivocal demand for the immediate release of the hostages, with the demand that they be treated humanely until then, we must uphold our own humanity, reject racism and hatred, and work toward ending the war and halting the bloodshed.
We also note the article recently written by Rachel Goldberg-Polin, mother of the slain hostage Hersh, and a consistent voice of moral clarity, in which she calls for an end to this war.
As we move toward the month of Elul, our month of introspection, we also pray for the war to end, and hold close the closing words of Lamentations, which express the hope of renewal especially in the darkest of moments:
הֲשִׁיבֵ֨נוּ יְהֹוָ֤ה ׀ אֵלֶ֙יךָ֙ וְֽנָשׁ֔וּבָה חַדֵּ֥שׁ יָמֵ֖ינוּ כְּקֶֽדֶם
“Return us to You, Eternal One, and we shall return; renew our days.” (Eicha 5:21)
Rabbi Josh Beraha
Rabbi Samantha Frank
Rabbi Healy Slakman
Rabbi Dr. Kari Tuling