We’re Wide Awake Now

This past Monday, almost 1500 members of our community participated in our October 7th commemoration at Clover Stadium. One of the most powerful elements of the program was the reading by Hillel Rockland student leaders of a poem that touches on the emotions we’ve all been feeling since October 7th, 2023. It was written by Rabbi Dov Oliver, who, with his co-director, partner and wife Shevy, leads Hillel Rockland. We’ve reproduced it here.

One quick note: In the Unetaneh Tokef prayer we say on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we mention a ‘kol demama daka’ a still, small voice. May our voices grow and roar, but may we recognize and always protect the stillness, the small, and the message within. May we all be sealed in the book of life. Gmar Chatima Tova.

It’s 4:14am.

Can’t sleep, can’t scroll.

Can’t not scroll.

It’s painful to see the graphic pictures and videos. It’s more painful not to feel the pain.

Sleep?

How dare you? How could you?

What fills my days?

Sighing , crying, rockets flying , brothers dying, world’s just lying.

Is there a meter for pain? Is there a metric for agony ?

If I feel my heart is totally broken , how can my heart keep breaking?

Did it somehow regenerate without me noticing just to then break again?

Maybe it did.

Maybe that explains it.

But what brought it back to life?

I know it definitely broke from the call.

Yes , it’s called The Call, not a call. THE call.

The most dastardly , vile, inhumane , unfathomably monstrous call. A call of evil incarnate of cruelty squared of barbarism in bundles.

The call.

“Mom, can you hear me, Mom are you there ?”

“It’s me, it’s your son. I killed them Mom , you should have seen it , how they cried , how they begged. “

“Ten Jews I killed them with my own hands, I am even calling from a Jewish woman’s phone , she’s dead.”

“I killed her. I did it Mom, can you believe it , how proud are you? Your son , your own son killed ten Jews all on his own. “

“Yes my son, wow. You’re a real hero. I am so , so proud.”

My friend heard the call.

Foolish fellow he is, in response he called them animals.

Hamas are not animals .

How could you drag down and insult and even associate animals with those depraved lowlives who only technically qualify to even be called creatures?

NEWSFLASH - animals aren’t evil.

Your cat’s not cruel.

Your hamster doesn’t hate.

Your poodle doesn’t pillage.

Your rabbit doesn’t rape.

There’s no Jihad for giraffes.

Animals kill to survive or in self defense. Animals don’t behead innocent babies or proudly livestream themselves stamping on dead grandparents for their children to see happening in real time.

Damn if anything in this world has a ripple effect , it’s murderous, violent ,terrorism.

Crippling, rippling.

Those so-called crack elite Hamas paragliding monsters who on that darkest of days challenged the very description of them as humans , which implies having a relationship with Humaneness and humanity .

The rock they dropped in our nation’s pond is still rippling , it will ripple for a long time , no, not a long time, forever.

Yes I said forever.

Thousands of years later does our nation not gather around the table to recall the details of how they enslaved us in Egypt?

Do we not fast for 25 hours as we recall the ransacking of our Holy Temple when the Talmud recounts how Jewish blood flowed freely in the gutters of Jerusalem?

But one second , back to the question at hand.

How did my broken heart heal?

It palpated from pain.

It died from devastation.

It suffocated from suffering.

How?

Why?

What?

When?

Oh. I see now. I see what happened.

It was Dedi’s son in his trademark vest giving out iPhones to orphans , doing wonders for widows , happiness to the hurt, hugs in the hospitals.

It was the people flocking to the front.

It was the sushi for soldiers , the BBQ’s for our boys, the food for our fighters , the love for the beloved.

It was the vigils for our veterans , the rallies for our reserves, the Tefillin for our troops. The candles for our kids.

It was the backpacks and duffle bags full of goodness and goodies. It was the packages of pride , the letters of love. It was the couple now keeping Kosher , the learning for our legends , the challah for the chatufim, the protests for our people.

It was the posts, the shares , the likes, the reels.

It was the emojis and the emotions.

It was the unprecedented, unparalleled, stunningly spectacular love and strength that we’ve seen and we’re seeing from Montreal to Miami , from Sydney to Sweden , from Prague to Paris , from Brazil to Brooklyn, from Russia to Rockland.

Darkness is dispellable.

Light wins the war.

I’ve never subscribed to the famous joke , God , we’re glad you made us the Chosen people, maybe it’s time to choose someone else.

No. Choose us .

Just choose life.

Look how we’ve tried to be like you .

Now please try to be like us. Please .

If you felt we needed a wake up call , we’re wide awake now. You’re awake too , right ?