This morning, as Jodi came into our Family Room where I was watching the news, I was able to tell her that the 20 still living Israelis who were being held by Hamas in Gaza were now home, reunited with their loved ones, and in special hospital facilities around the country designed help them recover from their traumatic incarceration and begin the long journey to resuming their previous lives. As she watched with me, she said, “There should be a blessing for this moment.”
I reflected for a moment upon several possible blessings from our liturgy. Some of the messages I received from various Jewish organizations began with a blessing found in Birkot HaShachar, the blessings recited at the beginning of the morning service, which ends with the words, “matir assurim”, “who releases the bound”, where it is used as a metaphor for the bonds of sleep from which God awakens us daily. Others chose “Shehecheyanu” to capture the joy of the moment of reunion.
Ultimately, my answer was rooted in a less familiar blessing and custom based on a teaching by Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi who said: One who sees a friend after thirty days have passed since last seeing him recites: Blessed…Who has given us life, sustained us and brought us to this time, “Shehecheyanu”. (Underlying the statement is the presumption that one has had no contact with that person throughout that time period. Modern technology has truly made this essentially obsolete.) Rabbi Yehoshua continues: One who sees his friend after twelve months recites: Blessed… m’chayeh meytim, who gives life to the dead. The Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chayim, 225) codifies this and adds, “this is for one who is very dear to him and is happy when seeing him.”
This feels most appropriate to me given the peril and certainty surrounding those held captive, how unknown their circumstances were, and the inability to have any contact with them for two years. The profound joy and relief felt across Israel and the Jewish world as these 20 living hostages return home after 738 days commands a prayer of thanksgiving even as we pray for their physical and spiritual healing. Also, we pray that God comfort the bereaved families who mourn those hostages who were murdered and pray that all of their bodies will soon be returned for proper burial and honor.
As we and conclude the holiday of Sukkot, we invoke the metaphor the sukkah represents in the prayer we recite each evening, “Ufros aleinu sukkat sh’lomekha – May You spread over us Your canopy of peace.”
Chag Sameyach –
Rabbi David M. Eligberg
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