You are invited to read this thought-provoking reflection by Rabbi Amy Eilberg, a member of the MVPJ Steering Committee, printed in full in "Forward" on October 15, 2024:

A colleague recently reminded me that during the Vietnam War, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel told a journalist that he could not pray because whenever he opened a prayer book, he saw images of children burning from napalm. 

I don’t compare my own prayer practice to that of Rabbi Heschel, but I had a similar experience this Yom Kippur. Wherever I looked in the liturgy, I found myself wondering how many Gaza residents or Lebanese or Palestinians in the occupied West Bank the Israel Defense Forces had killed that day while we were all in synagogue.

Click here to read the full article in "Forward."

...With the war and its horrors continuing to increase, praying about my own soul development seemed too small.   

Click here to read the full article in "Forward."