Three years ago this week, on Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacked Israel, killing about 1,200 people and kidnapping some 250 more in the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust.
asserted
Hamas → attack → Holocaust
Three years later, I am still trying to make sense of everything that has happened since.
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that → try → everything
But for many Jewish Americans, there was also the experience of watching our own communities, workplaces, and institutions change almost overnight.
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communities → be → Americans
So many people and communities we thought we knew and thought we were part of said things we never expected them to say, and places where we had spent years suddenly felt very different.
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we → think → years
I have spent much of the past three years fighting battles at my college that I never imagined I would have to fight.
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I → spend → college
I have been called names, and my family has been physically threatened.
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family → call → names
Students have been warned about taking my classes, many have boycotted me, and I have had to spend far too much time defending myself and my place at an institution where I have taught for almost two decades.
asserted
I → warn → decades
I have written a lot about what has happened, and I am sure I will write more about it.
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I → write → it
But that is not what I want to write about on this anniversary.
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I → want → anniversary
I want to write about a last-minute concert in New York where I had the honor of seeing the Israeli musician Idan Raichel perform.
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musician → want → honor
I have listened to Raichel for more than 20 years, but something struck me that night: His songs mean something very different to me now.
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songs → listen → me
The songs have not changed, of course, but after Oct. 7 and everything that has happened since, I hear them and interpret them differently.
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I → change → them
The title means “come,” and I have always loved the song.
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I → mean → song
It is about taking someone’s hand and moving forward without knowing exactly where you are going.
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you → take → hand
Don’t ask when happiness will come.
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happiness → ask → ?
Time keeps moving, and so do we.
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we → move → ?
When I first heard those words more than 20 years ago, I heard a love song.
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I → hear → song
It was a beautiful song about two people confronting all the uncertainty that comes with life together.
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that → confront → life
We do not know where we are going.
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we → know → ?
We cannot promise each other happiness or even know how much time we have.
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we → promise → time
But take my hand and let us go together anyway.
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us → take → hand
I still hear that song, but after Oct. 7, the “we” has become much larger for me.
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we → hear → me
I hear something about the Jewish experience of the past three years and about how to live in a dangerous and uncertain world.
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I → hear → world
We do not know what comes next.
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what → know → ?
We do not know when happiness will come or exactly where we are going.
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we → know → ?
But we take one another’s hands, we keep moving forward, and we do not surrender who we are.
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we → take → hands
Early in the concert, which was just Raichel and his piano, he began singing “Bo’i“, and the audience began singing with him.
There is obviously nothing unusual about people singing along at a concert, but this time I heard the song in a completely different way.
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I → begin → way
Maybe it was because of everything that has happened over the past three years.
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that → happen → years
Or it could have been that I was just tired and needed to hear it.
uncertain
I → need → it
But being in the room and listening to hundreds of people singing together in Hebrew, I had a very simple thought: We are a people who sing.
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who → listen → thought
Jews sing all the time.
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Jews → sing → ?
We sing on Friday night and at the end of Shabbat.
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We → sing → Shabbat
We sing around the Passover table and under the chuppah at weddings.
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We → sing → weddings
We sing at celebrations, and we sing when we mourn.
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we → sing → celebrations
My son and I sing together in synagogue.
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son → sing → synagogue
I know melodies because my parents knew them, and my children now know some of those same melodies because I sing them.
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I → know → them
Some of these words and melodies have been passed from one generation to another for thousands of years.
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Some → pass → years
But there we were, singing it together, three years after the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust.
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we → sing → Holocaust
Our shared singing of a song about moving forward hit me hard.
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singing → share → me
So much of the Jewish experience since Oct. 7 has been about responding to other people.
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much → respond → people
…and 31 more, not listed.
The Aporia
