A dark shadow was cast over the beginning of the Jewish Festival of Lights as two gunmen – a father and son – attacked a Hannukah gathering at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, Sunday. The attack left 15 attendees dead and dozens more hospitalized, and the dead included a 10-year-old girl and a Holocaust survivor.
For residents of the Northeast, the holiday carnage across the globe was a cruel echo of another targeted killing just hours prior- a shooting at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, on Saturday that left two students dead and nine injured.
As Hannukah continues into its second night tonight, Jewish leaders are responding to a holiday soaked in bloodshed, counseling disturbed congregants and reflecting on the themes of the celebration in light of the violence. Rabbi Rachel Barenblat serves congregation Beth Israel of the Berkshires in North Adams, Massachusetts, and has been blogging about Judaism under the nom de plume Velveteen Rabbi for over 20 years. She spoke with WAMC about her thoughts on a grim Hannukah, and how light can still emerge from the darkness.
BARENBLAT: So, on Saturday night, I went to bed grieving the shooting at Brown University, and it felt like, wow, what a blow to our hearts and spirits right before the holiday. And then to wake up on Sunday morning to this news was crushing. The feeling of waking up to another tragedy, there's been another shooting, there's been another act of violence is becoming a familiar feeling, and it's a really hard thing to live with. And of course, to wake up to text messages from congregants and others saying, have you heard the news? Do you know anybody over there? Are all of your people okay? I think that's an experience that all of us are now getting accustomed to having.
WAMC: Now, when folks are reaching out to you in the midst of this of this terror, both domestically and abroad, what kind of counsel are you offering people who are understandably rattled by, as you say, these continuing cycles of violence?
The first thing that I can offer is that in our Jewish community here in Northern Berkshire, and I know in Jewish communities everywhere, we are doing everything we can to keep our people safe. We've all hardened our buildings. Many of us now have a police presence. The first thing we did, my board leaders and I on Sunday morning was arrange for a police presence at our Hannukah concert, and I'm very grateful to the officers who show up and help us to feel safer. There's also a spiritual question, which is, how can we approach the holiday with open hearts and a feeling of uplift, when on some level, there's an inclination to cower, to want to protect ourselves and maybe stay apart. But I think that the best spiritual response we have is to come together and to be together, especially in difficult times.
Hannukah is traditionally a holiday that is about resilience and about overcoming injustice and overcoming violence, to hold on to this hope for a better future. What kind of themes are you drawing on from the traditions around the holiday in the context of these shootings?
So, there are two stories really associated with Hannukah. One of them is the miracle of the oil that lasted. And that's usually my go to, because I love the spiritual symbolism of saying, even when we don't feel like we have enough, even when we don't feel like we are enough to rise to whatever moment is before us, Hannukah comes to remind us that that we can and that we do have enough to get us through. This year, I'm leaning more into the story of the ancient Greco-Syrians who took over the temple and tried to make the practice of Judaism illegal about 2,200 years ago, and that they wanted to wipe us out. They wanted to extinguish the light of Judaism, and they did not succeed. And it's been 2,000 years, and we're still here. And there's something miraculous about the fact that we're still here, that we're still here practicing the traditions of our ancestors, and I believe that in another 1,000 years, our descendants will be practicing these traditions too. I find a lot of comfort in that, and I hope that the same is true for those I serve.
There was a- I hesitate to call it an uplifting moment amidst the terror and the violence in Australia, but the actions of the Syrian-born Australian man Ahmed al-Ahmed to bring an end to the violence. And if folks have not seen the footage, it is a fairly jaw dropping act of bravery. What are your thoughts on that? I mean, to have someone stand up and sort of make that motion is- It's pretty aweing stuff.
It is awe inspiring. It leaves me speechless. I am infinitely grateful. In many religious traditions, including mine, we have the teaching that the loss of a single life is the life the loss of an entire world, and the actions that Ahmed al-Ahmed took to save lives are just mind boggling in their bravery and generosity, and I would like to hope that if I were ever in that position, I would do the same. But I don't know if I have that in me, and I'm really moved and humbled by what he did, and very grateful.
As we put together the pieces on this terrible weekend – and as we speak right now, the perpetrator of the of the violence in Providence remains still at large – moving into the holiday, the days and nights ahead, what are your messages to the broader community, both the Jewish and the non-Jewish community heading into the next few nights of candle lighting and community and song? As we make our way forward in this in this dark winter, what are you trying to impress onto the people?
One of the things I love about Hannukah is that, we begin the holiday with one little candle, and on our first night, we kindle one candle, it's this one little flame- And over the course of the week, the light increases, which is especially poignant at this time of year as we're moving toward the solstice, when the light will literally start increasing in the world around us. For me, that's a teaching about how when we come together, our lights increase the light of the human soul, and that when we let our light shine, we create something that's more than the sum of its parts, and we help each other find hope. That's fundamentally my prayer for us this Hannukah, is that we let our light shine and that we can take hope in each other.
When you look back at when you first started to follow the path that has led you to your role as a spiritual leader, did it ever occur to you that such a frequent part of that responsibility would be counseling a community about these unthinkable acts of violence? I mean, earlier in our conversation, you mentioned how this is like a ritualistic element to having to respond to this- Did you ever imagine this when you first set out on your path to become a rabbi?
I did not imagine that this would be part of my rabbinic life. I don't think any of us did. You know, 20 years ago, the world felt like a different place, and while I recognize that the world has never been completely safe for anyone, there was more of a sense that anti-Semitism was a thing of the past, that it was a 20th century problem, that it was something my ancestors faced but that I didn't really encounter in my daily life. And the level and frequency of violence that we're seeing now is heartbreaking every time and shocking every time, and also feels hauntingly familiar. None of us wanted to become good at writing consoling letters to our communities, and yet this is part of our work today. My hope, and my prayer is that the day will come when this no longer occupies so much of our emotional and spiritual real estate.
And lastly, I wanted to ask you about your thoughts about the inclination towards vengeance. I mean, it's well documented in Jewish teachings that revenge is not good.
Right.
Many Talmudic, rabbinic, so many laypeople in the Jewish tradition are pretty unambiguous about this. When you think about counseling people in the wake of something as powerfully disturbing as this, what are your thoughts about the inclination towards vengeance that might naturally arise in people after acts of violence like this?
I think it's natural to have all kinds of feelings after a trauma like this, and witnessing something like this, even from afar, is a kind of trauma, and it can land heavy on our hearts. So, the first thing I want to say is, whatever it is that you're feeling, it's normal to feel it, and you're allowed to feel it. And there are some feelings that should not become actions, and hatred and vengeance should never become our path. The only answer is building bridges, building connections, and hopefully bringing justice in every place that injustice persists.
Thank you so much, Rabbi. I really appreciate your time today.
My pleasure. Thanks for having me.
