This year, “after the holidays” doesn’t represent a return to normal. As long as our enemies are fighting us and our hostages remain suffocating in Gaza, there is no “return” and no “normal.” Even when we arrive in the promised land (the day after the war), we cannot return to who we were before the inferno.
In that sense, we are in a similar situation to that of Avraham Avinu when he received the divine command to leave his home and journey to the land of Canaan. He does not know the way – only that his father failed in it. He doesn’t yet have children to continue his path if he, too, fails. He is armed only with the Holy One’s promise: that if he leaves the world he knows, his future will be a blessing.
We, too, are commanded to follow Abraham’s path. Indeed, there is no returning to our old world, and there will probably be more curses along the way, but we are not permitted to stop until we reach a future that can truly be called a blessing.
