From West Hempstead, a personal reflection

There is a time for war and a time for peace. Now is the time for war. One day it will be time for peace.”

Like everyone in our community and all right-minded people in the world, I am horrified by the heinous terrorist attacks that occurred in Israel over the past couple of days. The deliberate, premeditated slaughter of hundreds of civilians, on one of the holy days of the Jewish year, by a genocidal terrorist group is beyond description in words.

We know that in wars fought in civilian areas, civilians are unfortunately killed. But to specifically plan for the wholesale, deliberate murder of families in their homes, concert-goers and others, and the kidnapping of old people, children and women to use as bargaining chips or psychological warfare props, are things that boggle the civilized mind — and thrill only the diseased one.

This attack was a terrible blow for Israel and Jews worldwide. It is reminiscent to me of the Yom Kippur War. I was too young to really understand what was happening when that war began, but I remember the sense of fear that permeated the adults around me, and the nervous prayers led by my kindergarten teachers. That same feeling of desperately needing and not being able to access information (because of the holiday) afflicted me this weekend.

Everyone was adding bits of information they had picked up from newspapers, messages conveyed through neighbors, and the news just kept getting worse. Our enemies have wounded us, and more pain is likely to come. But unlike that war in 1973, I do not truly fear for Israel’s survival. She is strong, and if our enemies were looking to capitalize on the disunity that has wracked Israel for many months — they may have scored a blow, but they have badly miscalculated, because when the threats come from without, the core within hardens.

This past Shabbat, Shemini Atzeret, we read Kohelet. And Kohelet instructs us that there is a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to wail and a time to dance. But what happens when those things need to be done at the same time?

Simchat Torah is always a time of rejoicing and dancing, singing and glorifying. But this Simchat Torah was also a time to weep and wail. So our celebrations were tempered and our vigilance heightened, but we did dance. And we did sing. Because to do otherwise would be to allow our enemies to take even more than they already have. And for what they have taken, we will extract a price.

There is a time to kill and a time to heal. We are unfortunately now forced to do the former and in the process are doing the latter.

There is a time to wreck and a time to build. Now we will wreck the infrastructure and hopefully the leadership of our enemies, and continue to build our homeland.

There is a time to rend and a time to mend. We rent our spiritual clothing these past days, and hopefully we are mending our people.

There is a time to love and a time to hate. We are showing our love to our brothers and sisters and venting our hatred on those who seek to destroy our brothers and sisters.

There is a time for war and a time for peace. Now is the time for war. One day it will be time for peace.

Howard Bressler is a resident of West Hempstead. An attorney, he is author of “Wrong Conclusion, No Resolution: United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334’s Erroneous Conclusions on the Legality of Israeli Settlements in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem” and “The Layman’s Guide to Surviving Cancer: From Diagnosis Through Treatment and Beyond” (Langdon Street, 2014).

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