כמה טוב שבאת הבתיתה
Kama tov she’bata ha’baitah – how good it is that you have come home!
These words are the refrain to one of the most beloved Israeli songs, made famous by Arik Einstein, and one that has been playing on repeat in our house since Sunday night.
How good, indeed, that 20 living hostages made their way home from captivity in Gaza on Monday, to be greeted in the loving arms of their parents, wives, girlfriends, partners, siblings, and children.
How good, even amidst the heartbreak and the pain, that the remains of 9 hostages murdered in captivity have come home to be buried with dignity in their homeland, in Israel – even as we await the remaining 19 to be returned to their families for burial.
And how good too, to see the streams of Gazans making their way home, to know that although the rebuilding and reconstruction of Gaza will take untold resources and time, for now, the time of destruction and war has ended and the time of rebuilding and peace has begun.
I spent much of Sukkot reading the autobiography of Israeli-Canadian architect, Moshe Safdie, If Walls Could Speak. This last week of Sukkot gives us an opportunity to contemplate what it is that goes into a home. As tradition asks us to make our temporary, fragile, barely weather-proof sukkot into our homes for the week, we are reminded of just how precious our homes are – a reminder that was all the more poignant this last week. Safdie describes how his own ideas about an ideal home are rooted in his childhood growing up in Haifa, both before and after the founding of the State of Israel. “The ideal home…must have its own territory – well defined and private, even if it is small. It must always have a garden or a courtyard, or some other form of outdoor space – a transition zone, making a connection between the sheltered world indoors and the natural world outdoors.” This is what we seek – private space to be with our loved ones, outdoor space to connect with nature, a connection point between our private, intimate domains, and the public domain.
My prayer for those 20 hostages who made their way home on Monday – for Matan, Alon, Omri, Eitan, Guy, Gali, Ziv, Elkana, Avinatan, Yosef-Haim, Evyatar, Rom, Segev, Nimrod, Maxim, Eitan, Matan, Bar, David, and Ariel – is that they find the privacy they and their families need as they begin their long journeys towards healing. And my prayer for all of those families, Israeli and Palestinian, whose lives have been disrupted by 2 years of war and violence, is that they may each find the safety and security they need to rebuild their lives and their communities.
May we only know peace.
