Why are we giving the world a spectacle of powerlessness when we have never had more power?
My son was born in April 2023, which makes him about the same age as Kfir Bibas. By the time my son was 6 months old, Kfir had been stolen from his crib in the kibbutz of Nir Oz, Israel, and taken into a dungeon in Gaza, clutched by his mother, Shiri, alongside his brother, the toddler Ariel.
The day plainclothes Gazans snatched Kfir from his home—what was supposed to be a festive holiday—our rabbi stopped services to announce that he didn’t know what was happening in Israel, but it was something awful. Many people were killed and hostages were taken. We stopped services and begged God to intervene: “Listen to my cry, for I am in desperate need,” we read aloud from Psalm 142. “Rescue me from my pursuers, for they have overtaken me.”
“Set me free from this prison, that I may praise your name.”
A song I knew from childhood putting those words to music became my son’s new lullaby. “Acheinu” also served well: “Our brethren, from the whole House of Israel, who are in distress or captivity—may God have mercy on them and take them from distress to comfort.” Bedtime became prayer time. I clutched my son and thought about Kfir Bibas every night for 16 months.
Continue reading the entire piece here at Tablet
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Tal Fortgang is an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute. He was a 2023 Sapir Fellow.
Photo by DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP via Getty Images