Holding On and Letting Go: Shabbat in a Time of Terror and Hate

In this searing Shabbat sermon, Rabbi Pam Silk departs from her planned d’var Torah on the Jubilee year to confront the anguish unleashed by the murders of two young Jews, Sarah Milgram and Yaron Lishinsky, in Washington, DC. She names their killings as an act of terrorism fueled by anti-semitism, exposes how contemporary anti-zionism often masks and amplifies Jew-hatred, and reflects on the chilling reality of Jews being targeted simply for learning, worshiping, and gathering in Jewish spaces. Even as she refuses to minimize the pain, Rabbi Silk turns to the Torah’s call to Shabbat as a sacred pause — a “container, a frame around the chaos, a breath between the screams” — that can steady frightened souls and replenish the courage to live openly, proudly, enthusiastically Jewish in a world where hatred has grown louder and more acceptable.