The Paradox of Redemption: An important message from Rabbi Gewirtz

October 9, 2025 | 17 Tishrei 5786

Jewish tradition teaches that counterintuitively and paradoxically, it is only when we find the ability to live amid dichotomy; holding both sides of the polar opposite, can we find spiritual balance.

Indeed, just over two years to the day, we find the opportunity to live the polar opposites of both bitterness and sweetness.

It was less than two days ago that none of us could find sufficient words to describe the pain and misery: the shock and devastation of October 7, 2023. The mourning was and is acute. So many of our brothers and sisters’ lives were needlessly taken by the savagery of Hamas. Our lives have been forever, changed by one of the seminal moments in all Jewish history. Not only did the landscape of the entire Middle East change in the past two years, but the trauma has been indelibly marked on the soul of our Homeland and our People. The hatred we have seen wrought on our way of being and living, has shaken our understanding of what it means to be Jewish and Zionist. The scenes we have watched will never and should never leave our conscious understanding of the world. And so, in this week of memory, we turn every ounce of our hearts and spirits towards Israeli families who sacrificed their loved ones for our Homeland. We will never forget. We will never forget their sacrifices. We will never forget the toll. We pray the families of the fallen understand just how tightly we hold them in our hearts. Our burdens are seasoned with bitterness.

That is one pole to which we are attached and are obligated to carry. And somehow, we are suddenly tethered to the opposite pole; to which we are also obligated to carry and celebrate.

It seems the unthinkable is manifesting into a redemptive reality. With deep gratitude to President Trump, the government of Israel, and brave Arab allies, it seems we have come upon the breakthrough for which we’ve been waiting. It appears, that this Shabbat will be the last that we are compelled to pray for the freedom of Israeli hostages who have lived in utter hell, in terror tunnels for the past two years. We anticipate the scenes of captives, our brothers and sisters, finally being reunited with their longing families. And we will watch as many others come home to give their families a physical and spiritual resolution by being able to bury their dead with dignity and finally start the process of saying Kaddish.

Israeli soldiers would no longer have to leave their families to serve in an existentially exhausting war. And Gazans might yet have another chance at life. Perhaps, there’s been some kind of new reset button pushed, that might ignite real change; albeit an arduous path, towards a comprehensive peace, expanding the Abraham Accords and even paving a path to peace with the Palestinians. We will never allow this kind of threat to overtake us again, but, as I said on Rosh Hashanah, we too must continue to manifest what peace might look like. All of it is now possible.

Indeed, cheers and tears of joy have poured on to the streets of Israel. People are dancing with their Lulavs and Etrogs in Horas of joy and relief. Public squares are filled with citizens singing and wailing; with a sense of hope that is finally based in a reality of balance and wholeness and yes, peace.

The Sukkah itself is a fragile structure. It is a symbol that reminds us of the vulnerability felt by our ancestors as they navigated their forty-year trek through the desert to the Promised Land. It is a symbol that reminds us that fortification is always needed if we want to find permanence in our redemptive hopes and prayers. What has happened over the past two years will never be forgotten. Our relationships with ourselves, each other, our neighbors, our Homeland, with our own sense of what it means to be Jewish have forever been changed, some in profoundly important and positive manners.

However, the reason we all keep on saying that we are holding our collective breath is because we understand more than ever the temporary nature of almost everything in our world. We have a lot of work to do here at home and in Israel, our spiritual home. It is up to us to fortify our metaphorical Sukkot, this temporary current reality, so that we pave a permanent path to a world in which we never experience the nightmares of these years. Indeed, perhaps the opposite, a world in which we can live to see our way to light and peace. Hope can’t be passive; it must come with the words of our mouths and the actions of our hands to stitch together a quilt of what we call a Sukkat Shalom…. A covering of peace which we all deserve.

Please come and join us tomorrow night at Shabbat Services at 5:30 PM, so together we can stand in the paradox of both pain and joy; holding breath and sighing in relief; praying in memory and celebration that this long painful war may finally indeed be over. 

We have never stopped, and we never will stop leading in standing with our brothers and sisters in solidarity for a thriving Israel.

Please join me in steadfast prayers that scenes of redemption will manifest right in front of our very eyes in the next hours.

With love,

Matthew