I am writing to you after flying back from Israel where I was visiting family.
I and other travelers in the U.S. and around the world have encountered many challenges: the pandemic has forced changes to our flights and created new government rules for leaving and entering nations, even stipulating special permission documents that suddenly must be procured to fly back home. The mood is one of anxiety, worry, and even panic.
All around our nation, and the world, people are trying to fly home and to see their families.
Here, for many of us, the news is upsetting. Neighbors, friends, family members are catching the virus. The numbers are unprecedented. The reports that omicron is milder than the delta variant are encouraging. But we simply do not know what is going to happen next.
It feels like our lives are caught in a Purim lottery. The forces at work with this pandemic spreading throughout our world make our individual lives seem small. In the end, perhaps all that we can do is let go and hold on to peace.
Peace is at the center of our prayers.
We conclude every Amidah, the core of each service, with a prayer for peace. We chant: “Bring peace”—Sim shalom, and conclude “Blessed are You, Adonai, who blesses His people Israel with peace.”
True peace is found in the heavens and within ourselves.
At the end of every Kaddish, we say: “Oseh shalom bimromav…”, “May He who makes peace in His heavens, May He make peace for us and to all of Israel [we can add: “for all nations”], and let us say amen.”
Ultimately, peace of mind is what we are seeking and what we hope to be able to give to others, to the people we love, and to our community. If we can find our peace, we can also gift it to others.
Friends, I hope to see you soon.
May we all find shalom. May this coming (secular) year bring us: be’sorot tovot— only good news, briut—health, achdut—unity, and above all else, peace of mind, heart, body, and soul.
