Beshalach: Reach Out Your Hands - #Day486 #Broadcast1232 #BringThemHomeNow

BO: Heroism Amidst Darkness - #Day483 #Broadcast1231 #Bo #BringThemHomeNow #UntilTheLastHostage

BO: The Tragic Necessity of the Plagues - #Day482 #Broadcast1230 #Bo #BringThemHomeNow

BO: A Legacy of Compassion - #Day481 #Broadcast1229 #Bo #BringThemHomeNow #AmYisraelChai💙🇮🇱

BO: The Fragility of Freedom - #Day480 #Broadcast1228 #Bo #BringThemHomeNow #AmYisraelChai💙

Bo: Braiding Dignity in the Darkness

Bo: Braiding Dignity in the Darkness

Rabbi Menachem Creditor

 

There is so much to say about Parshat Bo, so much to learn from its depths. But today, our prayers are focused, please God, on the possibility, the potential, and the reality of liberation. Arbel Yahoud and Agam Berger, held captive for the last 479 days—an unthinkable, inhumane stretch of time—stand on the edge of freedom. It is miraculous, please God, that they are alive.

I learned something over the weekend that stopped me in my tracks. When young Israeli women have been released from their unfathomable captivity, their hair has been braided. At first, I assumed it was the terrorists’ attempt to make them appear cared for. But no, the truth is far more profound: Agam Berger herself, God willing soon to be reunited with her loved ones this Thursday, braided the hair of her fellow captives as they were released.

It seems small, but it is not small at all. Self-determination takes many forms. In an abyss of darkness, Agam braided dignity into her sisters’ hair. That act shines to me as a declaration of humanity, a spark of light defying despair.

Today is also International Holocaust Remembrance Day, marking 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz. The world pauses to remember when it finally showed up, but as Jews, our own memory functions differently. On our calendar, we mark Yom HaShoah two weeks after Pesach—not to remember being freed by others, but to recall the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, when we fought for ourselves. The difference between being remembered as victims and remembering ourselves as rebels is not trivial. It defines us.

We must hold that difference tightly. As we mark the release of captives, we must remember what it means to braid our own hair, to act even in unimaginable circumstances, to assert our humanity.

In Parshat Bo, God says to Moshe, “Come to Pharaoh. (Ex. 10:1)” It’s a strange phrase. Not "go"—come. God is already there, even in Pharaoh’s palace. God strengthens Pharaoh’s heart so that signs and wonders can unfold. It’s a complicated passage, but it reminds us: Our story is one of Divine wonder emerging from impossible places.

This Thursday, please God, Arbel Yahoud and Agam Berger will come home. After 479 days of captivity, after the worst day in Jewish history since the Holocaust, we refuse any justification for this intense suffering and the inhumanity of Hamas’ October 7 massacre of our family. Terrorism is not justifiable. But we see the wonder of Jewish survival in Agam braiding her sisters’ hair. That’s Divinity. That’s miracle.

Our story is not over. We tell it with dignity. And we have learned to refuse to wait for the world to liberate us. We declare our own beauty, braid our own hair, and keep our flame alive.

So I invite you, friends, to pray with me. Pray that this fragile moment of hostage release and ceasefire holds steady. Pray that every beloved soul comes home. And once they are home, once they are ALL home, may we honor them by bringing fierce Jewish blessings to the world—unfettered, unbroken.

Our braids are beautiful. Our survival is beautiful.

Bless Arbel. Bless Agam. Bless those whose faces we see and those we will never see again. And may we, with love and devotion, continue telling our story—not as victims, but as Am Yisrael, a family who knows how to braid dignity into even the darkest moments.

Bo: The Braids of Freedom - #AgamBerger #Day479 #Broadcast1227 #Bo #BringThemHomeNow

Vaeira: Phases of Liberation - #Day476 #Broadcast1226 #ShabbatShalom #Vaera #BringThemHomeNow

Vaeira: Gaza and the Nile - #Day475 #Broadcast1225 #Vaeira #BringThemHomeNow

Vaeira: Can You Imagine a Better World? - #Day474 #Broadcast1224 #Vaera #BringThemHomeNow 💙🇮🇱

VaEra/MLK: More Divinity, More Freedom - #Day472 #Broadcast1222 #Vaera #BringThemHomeNow 💙🇮🇱

Olam Chesed Yibaneh @ Hostage Release Vigil | Jan 18, 2025

Shemot: THESE ARE THE NAMES - #Day469 #Broadcast1221 #Shemot #BringThemHomeNow #AmYisraelChai💙🇮🇱

Shemot: The Ethical Use of Power We Wish We Didn't Need - #Day467 #Broadcast1219 #BringThemHomeNow

Shemot: Bring Them Home Now - #Day466 #Broadcast1218 #Shemot #BringThemHomeNow #AmYisraelChai💙🇮🇱

Shemot: We Remember - #Day465 #Broadcast1217 #Shemot #BringThemHomeNow #AmYisraelChai💙🇮🇱

Vayechi: Gratitude from the Depths - #Day462 #Broadcast1216 #BringThemHomeNow #AmYisraelChai💙🇮🇱

Vayechi: We're Here. We Promise. in memory of Youssef Ziyadne z"l - #Day461 #Broadcast1215 #Vayechi #BringThemHomeNow #AmYisraelChai💙🇮🇱

Vayechi: There's More than Enough Love for Us All - #Day459 #Broadcast1213 #BringThemHomeNow 💙🇮🇱

Creation Plus One: A New Years Reflection

Creation Plus One: A New Years Reflection
Rabbi Menachem Creditor

Here we are, at the beginning of a new secular year, the first day of 2025. At the same time, we are on day 453 of war. These truths coexist, and they shape us.

While the secular New Year might not hold religious significance in Jewish terms, we are taught that every moment carries the potential for holiness. Every breath, every thought, every intention has the power to bring more Divinity, more hope into the world. We are vessels for shefa, the flow of Divine Abundance. So why not see this morning, this day, this moment as a possibility that wasn’t here before?

A new year can be more than just a date on a calendar—it can be an invitation to open our eyes, to notice the beauty that surrounds us but often goes unseen. Just this morning, I found myself singing a blessing and, for the first time in what feels like ages, I noticed the trees outside my window. They’ve been there all along, steady and silent, but I hadn’t truly seen them.

This realization brings to mind Wordsworth’s words: “The world is too much with us.” How often do we rush through life, missing what is right in front of us? Perhaps the beginning of something new starts with simply noticing, with pausing long enough to see.

As we step into this year, there are deep, heartfelt hopes we carry. The end of war. The safe return of the hostages. A world where we don’t wake to news of violence and loss, like the tragic event in New Orleans yesterday. A year without those burdens—that would be good.

But even as we hold these hopes, we also hold responsibility. What will we bring to this year? What will we notice, and what will we build? As we conclude Hanukkah, with its culmination in the power of the eighth night, we are reminded of the mystical significance of the number eight: creation plus one. It’s the world as we know it, plus something more.

What is your “plus one”? What light, what strength, what love will you add to the world this year? For me, that “plus one” begins with seeing the trees again. It begins with noticing the beauty that has been waiting patiently for my attention.

Martin Buber taught us that even a tree can become a thou, a presence with whom we are in relationship:

"...I can perceive it as movement: flowing veins on clinging, pressing pith, suck of the roots, breathing of the leaves, ceaseless commerce with earth and air—and the obscure growth itself. ...I can subdue its actual presence and form so sternly that I recognise it only as an expression of law — of the laws in accordance with which a constant opposition of forces is continually adjusted, or of those in accordance with which the component substances mingle and separate... It can, however, also come about, if I have both will and grace, that in considering the tree I become bound up in relation to it. The tree is now no longer It. I have been seized by the power of exclusiveness. (Buber, "I Contemplate a Tree")"

The tree is not just an object—it is an “other,” silently waiting to be noticed. And so, I ask you, friends: what is right in front of you that you’ve been missing? What beauty, what possibility, what connection is quietly waiting for you to pause, to see, to step into its potential?

As we recite - and count - our blessings this morning, let’s embrace their essence: gratitude for the ability to see, to take one step after another, to differentiate between night and day. Let these blessings remind us to notice the world around us, to notice who we are and what we can offer.

May this year be one of noticing and building. May it be a year of healing for the broken-hearted, comfort for those who mourn, and freedom for the captives. May we find strength in each other and in the beauty of this world. And may we choose, every day, to bring our full selves into this life, so that the world can grow stronger, brighter, and more whole.

Let’s begin, friends. Let’s see the trees. Let’s see each other. Let’s see the beauty waiting to unfold.

A Simple Blessing for the New Year - #Day453 #Broadcast1209 #2025 #NewYear #VaYigash #Channukah #BringThemHomeNow #AmYisraelChai💙🇮🇱