This isn't the top headline, and it should be. Pay attention to what's happening right now in Kibbutz Kissufim, step by step:
• First of all, the members of Kissufim are coming home. After 19 members of the kibbutz were murdered, more than 90% of the residents have decided to return to the place now and rebuild it. But there's also something new. A young kibbutz member sent me some moving photos: "75 years have passed since our parents founded this kibbutz, and this week, for the first time, a synagogue was dedicated here. We decided we're coming back, but we want to upgrade." The ceremony was led by Rabbi Ariel Igra from the neighboring community of Shlomit. "We're brothers," he said, "and the moment you reached out and asked for help building the synagogue, it was clear to me how to help."
• And here's Shlomit's extraordinary act of help for Kibbutz Kissufim: On October 7th, four residents of Shlomit fell — they had gone out to defend the neighboring community of Pri Gan. They repelled the terrorists and saved the community. In their memory, a new and beautiful synagogue was recently built in Shlomit. "The equipment from the previous synagogue was gladly donated to our friends from Kissufim," Rabbi Igra told me, "but it was only at the ceremony that I told them who had built and renovated that equipment. Our friends, the heroes Reuven Sasportas and Bechor Sued, who fell in battle on Simchat Torah — they were the ones who renovated the bimah and the holy ark. Now that bimah and that holy ark are in Kissufim's new synagogue."
• But it turns out the holy ark that arrived from Shlomit has an even older history. Rabbi Igra went on to reveal: "The holy ark came to Shlomit from a synagogue that was in Gush Katif. After Gush Katif was, sadly, destroyed in the Disengagement, this holy ark made its way to Shlomit. Just to think that a holy ark from Gush Katif ended up, in the end, in a synagogue opening for the first time in Kibbutz Kissufim... The people of Israel live, and continue moving forward with God's help."
• The synagogue dedication ceremony continued with a first, deeply moving Mincha prayer service. A mezuzah was affixed at the entrance of the new synagogue. One of the kibbutz members recited the blessing, adding the "Shehecheyanu" blessing. Rabbi Igra said to him: "Let's consider how meaningful these words are. For me as a resident of Shlomit, for you, who embody the longing (kisufim), the yearning, and also the return here. You are the emissary of the entire kibbutz in reciting 'Shehecheyanu.' I wish for you that before long, a new mezuzah will be affixed on a new building, because there won't be enough room here for all the new members."
Amen.
This isn't the top headline in the news, but it's what's truly happening right now within the Jewish people.
