10/10/2025
Special Message from Rabbi David-Seth Kirshner
https://conta.cc/46LZ9f7
A Birthday Wish Delayed
I woke up on October 7th, 2023, on what was my 50th birthday, to the tragedy and catastrophe that has become known simply by its date. Candle wax melted on cake without being blown out. We were too focused on the developing stories to think of frosting and yearnings. Birthday wishes quickly morphed into prayers for the hostages, the wounded and the dead.
So began a day of infamy that continued for two painstaking years. Twenty-four excruciating months. 735 sunset-less days. 17,640 interminable hours. For two years, the calendar has been holding on October 8th.
That fateful day and the developments that followed, will forever adjust the DNA of the State of Israel and the Jewish people. Just as our slavery in Egypt defined our identity, and our expulsion from Spain demarcated our trajectory and the Holocaust forever shaped our future, this time will prove to be a cauldron that tested our collective determination, resolve and resiliency. The alienation was burning at times. The exclusion cruel. Like the medieval poet penned, the heat of the fire shapes the firmness of the iron staff.
As we prepare to emerge out of this two-year dark tunnel, we will not assume a life-as-normal reality. We will not go back to October 6th, 2023, nor will we continue to breathe in existential dread and fright. Tomorrow will be the long-awaited sunrise of a new reality.
Soon enough, after the celebrations and return of the living and the dead, Hostage Square in Tel Aviv will go back to being a plaza for the art museum where people will walk their dogs and children will ride bicycles. The memories will linger in what became sacred space, but it will return to its original purpose, as we long hoped.
In time, yellow ribbons will come down from billboards and lawn signs. Soldiers will stop reserve duty and fulfill postponed family vacations, reenroll in university and invest in their startups. The nightmare will be over, but the trauma and memory will continue to shape us.
New conflicts will be the focus of righteous indignation by well-meaning and uninformed people. News will cycle. The hungry will be ignored for a salacious story and the impoverished will be forgotten for a manufactured narrative. All the while the displaced citizens of Israel will gingerly move back to their homes in the north and near the Gaza envelope, that are brimming with memories.
Fathers will finally be able to bring flowers to the burial beds of their sons and have them rest in the dignity they deserve. Mothers will be able to bring favorite cooked dishes to the people reintegrating to society and being reintroduced to humanity.
Long forgotten will be the ebb and flow of these two years. The wonders of exploding pagers and the misery of executed hostages paired with the relief of eliminated nuclear reactors and the frustration of allies siding with the bad-guys and emboldening terror.
We are a people that consistently rebuilt that which others sought to destroy. Usually, even better. Whether commandments, a Temple or a nation state, we are in constant tussle with people who wish to make our destruction permanent. They are naïve to think that are spirit is waning, or our essence is destructible.
The coming days will be joyous in Israel. The elation will be tempered by the memory of 1200 souls murdered and 466 soldiers who sacrificed their lives for a 2500-year-old dream. I pray that these reunification events will restore hope, offer calm, bring normalcy and establish stability. It will not be achieved in a vacuum. The wounds are still fresh and will take ample time to transform into scars. Healing will be different for all corners of our nation. Give it time.
I will forever be indebted and grateful to President Trump and this administration for his endless pursuit of bringing the hostages home. He has made that a goal from his first hours of his second term and fulfilled that promise when Edan Alexander was able to hug his parents again. President Trump never wavered in his appreciation for the challenges Israel endured on October 7th and afterwards, and Israel’s moral responsibility to dispel those who seek to destroy her and their right to defend its land. Were it not for Trump’s tireless efforts and focus, I wonder if this auspicious moment would come to pass.
The Jewish community will forever be changed. More steeled. More cautious. More guarded. More wary. More determined. We will not be the same. I pray we are better. It is the most appropriate way to give homage to those who endured tragedy or sacrifice. If we are better individually and as a nation, then perhaps there was value in this moment.
Two years onward, a fresh cake is before us. My wish is the same as it has been for every second of these two years. This time, it feels like it might come true.
A birthday wish delayed.
It took too long. But it is worth the wait to have it fulfilled.
This year, may we find our way to Jerusalem to celebrate and be welcomed home.
David-Seth Kirshner
Rabbi
