This past Shabbat, Jews all over the world read the first prophesy of Jeremiah, including this dire warning: “From the north shall disaster break loose upon all the inhabitants of the land.”
On that same day, a Hezbollah rocket fired from Lebanon horrifically killed twelve children playing soccer in Majdal Shams in Israel’s Golan Heights. Disaster had broken loose from the north upon the inhabitants of our land. We share in the unspeakable grief of the loving families of the victims and join in mourning with Israel’s Druze community.
Jews dream and work to serve as a source of blessing for all people. This vision was affirmed in the creation of the Jewish State, as Israel’s Declaration of Independence committed to “foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants … based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel.”
Iran and its proxies dream and work to bring disaster on all the inhabitants of our land. Hezbollah’s evil actions, so vividly on display this Shabbat, have caused the long-term displacement of tens of thousands of Israelis, as well as trauma, injury, and death.
Israel will do everything it takes to restore Zecharia’s prophetic vision of peace, when elderly men and women will sit peacefully in the squares of Jerusalem and throughout the land, and those squares will be crowded with boys and girls happily playing.