Tamrurim תַּמְרוּרִ֔ים

I have not posted since the news came that the hostages were to be released and we had reached a ceasefire. That is because I knew … I knew it wouldn’t last, I knew Hamas couldn’t be trusted, I knew Israel would be blamed for violations when Hamas wouldn’t. I knew.

I sit here and since my last post, the following is true:

• There is still a deceased hostage not returned.
• Hamas murdered many Gazans in the streets because they were “opposition” and the world was mostly silent
• Hamas clearly has refused to disarm and in fact has re-armed and tactically repositioned fighters.
• Bibi, Ben-Gvir, and Smotrich continue to allow for violent acts against West Bank Palestinians and have not done much of anything to hold any IDF soldier who violated their oath in Gaza to be held responsible (the ones who crossed lines, acted outside of their mission to cause extra harm, etc).
• UNWRA – which has repeatedly been proven to be a part of systemic JewHate, is somehow “back in business.”
• Videos of hostages have been released to the public: some showing resilience in the darkest times, some showing outright murder
• Hamas has been proven (repeatedly) to have been withholding aid, fuel and other supplies to Gazans and yet somehow Israel is still being blamed for a crisis (which may or may not be inflated/may or may not be mis-reported)
• Trump has demonstrated his love for Qatari money at the cost of Israel’s security.
• Hamas has fired rockets and sniper fire towards Israel on several occasions (my red alert app going off) and when Israel responds, it’s their fault for violating the agreement.
• Senior Hamas leaders still remain in cushy surroundings in Doha, Qatar at the same time Qatar tries to position itself as a neutral arbiter of peace.
• Israel has taken out a few more Hamas operatives under the claim there was intelligence of new planned attacks – which may or may not be true.
• Thousands of Israelis are still displaced from the North due to Hezbollah threats and from the South where there is still rebuilding to be done. (Note: ask yourself why all these displaced Israelis aren’t living in tents cities the last two years. If you can’t figure it out, I am happy to explain.)
• The media has learned nothing and continues to take everything from Hamas as pure fact (even when images show AI manipulation in plain sight).
• JewHate via antiZionism has only worsened, proving the war itself isn’t the motivation.

I knew nothing would actually change. My heart is happy for the released living hostages – despite the ongoing medical and emotional trauma they are dealing with.

The news of our hostages coming home, of Am Yisrael being able to begin healing, and the beginning to the end of civilian suffering in Gaza is a tremendous relief. But most of us combined this relief with “will only celebrate when they are on Israeli soil” and “won’t fully exhale until its all over.” A fear of jinxing it all perhaps or a layer of distrust that we have seen deals go south before and don’t want to trust it quite yet. But still, there were celebrations in Hostage Square, families of hostages posting images of joy on their social media, and expressions of gratitude to those in leadership that facilitated this deal.

So how do we flip a switch between the sorrow of 10.7.2025 and the joy of 10.8.2025? Jews are no stranger to this quick cross-over from mourning to celebration. Each year we spend Yom HaZikaron mourning those we have lost to war and terror, honoring the soliders who gave the ultimate sacrifice for Israel and Am Yisrael…and then at sundown we have a remarkable move to celebrations, parties, BBQs, picnics, carnivals, and concerts as we welcome Yom HaAtzmaut (Israeli Independence Day).

Outsiders question the placement of these observances and how human beings can turn from sorrow to simcha in a split moment. Our widsom tells us that we must link these moments so that we remember that the celebration could not exist without the sacrifice. We recognize that Israel has always been a people and a country that is based in communal grief and communal joy—Am Yisrael is a peoplehood because we share in our mourning and we share in our accomplishments.

This linking of celebration and sorrow is mirrored in our wedding celebrations when a glass is broken to remind us of the fragility of our relationships, the brokeness that can come if we don’t work to protect what is valuable, the shattering of The Temple and all it embodies—and then seconds later we erupt as a community into shouts and song of Mazal Tov u’Siman Tov to celebrate this new union and all the blessings it will bring to the couple and to their community.

These comparisons lead to me wonder about years to come. We know we will indefinitely continue to mourn communally on October 7th, but will we collectively celebrate the end of this atrocious two years? Will that celebration be on October 8th? Or because the road to “peace” will take months and years that we won’t have a specific date to mark the moment we collectively exhaled? How might we permanently link a feeling of relief and joy to the sorrow we will always feel about the last two years? I don’t have an answer, but I do believe that Jewish wisdom would tell us to find one. And, perhaps, the answer lies in the correlation to Sukkot and Simchat Torah on the Hebrew calendar as it relates to October 7, 2023 and October 8, 2025?