Good and Evil

Two years ago according to the Hebrew calendar, I sent out a family letter on Facebook describing how our world had been turned upside down on Simchat Torah. I requested prayers for all of us and reported that among the kidnapped was Avinatan Ben Ditza Tirza who had grown up in Shilo and was a good friend of my son-in-law and daughter. For two years, Avinatan’s name, along with the others, had been on my lips several times a day. As each group of hostages was released though, my head began to wonder. Still my heart refused to stop praying. Many of those prayers were said with tears, all were recited with hope. And then it happened. Right before Simchat Torah Avinatan and nineteen others finally left their hell in Gaza and came home to rejoicing, thankful, and relieved family, friends, and strangers. So many of the Simchat Torah prayers seemed as if they’d been written specifically for this year. The one that truly hit me was recited after the Ark was opened and the Torah scrolls taken out for dancing. And say on this day behold, here is our G-d, we had hoped for Him that He would save us. Yet, to our sorrow, many were not saved and will never come home. Hamas continues to wage psychological warfare with the returning of our murdered victims. Avinatan and the other twenty hostages lost 738 days of their lives. All the hostages, the soldiers, the bereaved, the injured, the evacuees, and their families, all of us, will need healing. Despite that, during Hallel, the songs of praise said on our holidays I was able to recite with a full heart Give thanks to HaShem for He is good; His kindness endures forever. Our Sages teach that we should bless the bad as we bless the good but in actuality, we do not do that. Only in the time of Redemption will we be able to finally understand that what we thought was bad was truly good. Yesterday, when my son-in-law posted this picture of Avinatan standing on his feet, towering over some of his Shilo buddies, I saw only good. I pray the day will come soon when all we have labeled evil will turn positive as we welcome the Moshiach.