Rabbi Hillel Skolnik
President, MERCAZ USA
One of the most central aspects to our observance of Shabbat is the idea of Shabbat Menucha – Shabbat rest. Shabbat, among many other things, is meant to be a time that we set aside the work and labor of the other six days and allow our minds, hearts and souls to recharge. From candle lighting until havdalah, we strive to reach the calm that eludes us for the remainder of the week.
Since October 7, achieving that objective has been impossible. There is no way for any of us to be at rest while any single hostage is still held in Gaza. And while this Shabbat was not going to be a time of menucha, there was an anticipation that it would come with new knowledge that would take us a step closer to an actual Shabbat of rest and Shabbat of peace. We heard the initial reports that Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas were not alive and we wailed with pain and sadness. We waited anxiously for their bodies to be returned along with that of Oded Lipshitz. We watched the caskets paraded through Gaza as our blood boiled from being forced to endure another disgusting display from Hamas and all those who joined in. We sat with baited breath as the Israeli forensic scientists worked diligently to identify the bodies – bodies in locked caskets that the keys presented did not open. We mourned as Oded’s body was identified. We freted when buses exploded in Bat Yam in what was a miraculous avoidance of carnage that had been planned by Hamas. And then we heard that just when we thought some semblance of peace would come to Shiri, Ariel and Kfir, to their families and to us, that the terrorist created nightmare only continues. Ariel’s and Kfir’s bodies had been returned so many months after they were brutally murdered by their captors, but the final casket contained the remains of an unknown person whose DNA did not match a single hostage.
Though it didn’t seem possible, we enter this Shabbat with even less chance for rest as we ask, “Where is Shiri?” There is no rest until she and the remaining hostages are returned home. There is no rest until the world wakes up to the horrors that Israel faces every day. There is no rest until people, Jews and non-Jews, stand up to those who have sided with the terrorist butchers. There is no rest until every single hostage, including Shiri is home.
It’s not Shabbat Shalom. It’s not Shabbat Menucha. Now it’s just Shabbat.