In this op-ed for Haaretz, one of Israel's leading newspapers, Rabbi Deborah Waxman, Ph.D. reflects on the High Holy Days, October 7 and the challenges of balancing care for our own community with compassion for others. She asks: "Can we choose a path that will lead us, individually and collectively, toward our own well-being and the well-being of others not within our own tribe, to the preservation and even flourishing of the planet?"
We are living in tremendously challenging times, where every day and every headline brings difficult news. At this moment of disruption and destruction, we offer a prayer for groundedness and grace.
In this moving reflection, Rabbi Deborah Waxman shares her transformative experience on a service-learning trip to Israel with Yahel and Repair the World. Amid the complexities of a region in conflict, she discovers how hands-on service work—from weeding at a therapeutic farm for veterans to packing food for Bedouin villages—opens pathways to hope, agency and renewal when mere words and meetings cannot.
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