100 days ....

Yesterday, on the 100th day of the war, the 100th day that 130+ hostages have been held in a hell we cannot begin to imagine, there were ceremonies around Israel — to remember the children, women and men, to read out their names, one by one, and to support their families, who are living a reality we cannot imagine.

All around this nation, a battered people slowly realizing that we’re very unlikely to meet either of the goals we set for this war — destroying Hamas and getting all the captives back alive, took a day to pause, to remember, to embrace and to pray.

We’d planned something else for today’s post, but we’re delaying it. Instead, just a brief clip of the ceremony in Jerusalem, at the Haas Promenade, overlooking the Old City, which you can see lit up in the background.

I found the ceremony unbearably painful. It was hard to breathe, much less speak. So we’re sharing that brief clip without writing anything about it. It speaks for itself.

There are three portions to the brief video, which are the concluding moments of the ceremony.

• First, a song by Israel’s iconic musician, Idan Reichel, called “Waiting.”

• The the sounding of the shofar, which, tradition says, opens up the heavens to prayer.

• And then, Hatikvah.

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The words to the Idan Reichel song reads as follows (you can watch him performing it, in Hebrew obviously, here):

יום אחד זה יקרה
בלי שנרגיש, משהו ישתנה
משהו ירגע בנו, משהו יגע בנו
ולא יהיה ממה לחשוש.

וזה יבוא כמו קו חרוט על כף יד
זה יבוא בטוח בעצמו
כאילו היה שם תמיד
וחיכה שנבחין בו

וזה יבוא, אתה תראה
הידיים הקפוצות יתארכו
והלב השומר לא להיפגע יפעם בקצב רגיל
זה יבוא, כמו שהטבע רגיל
להיות שלם עם עצמו

יום אחד זה יקרה
בלי שנרגיש, משהו ישתנה
משהו יגע בנו, משהו ירגע בנו
ולא יהיה ממה לחשוש

וזה יבוא כמו קו חרוט על כף יד
זה יבוא בטוח בעצמו
כאילו היה שם תמיד
וחיכה שנבחין בו

וזה יבוא, אתה תראה...

וזה יבוא, אתה הרי יודע
לא הכל יטלטל אותנו
לא הכל יכה
ומה שייפתח לנו
מחכה

One day it will happen
without us feeling it, something will change
Something will relax in us, something will touch us
And there will be nothing to fear.

And it will come like line engraved on the palm of your hand
It will come, sure of itself
as if it had always been there
and waited for us to notice

And it will come, you will see
Clenched hands will lengthen
And the heart struggling not to be hurt will beat at a normal rate
It will come, as nature is wont to do
to be whole with itself

One day it will happen
Without us feeling it, something will change
Something will touch us, something will relax in us
And there will be nothing to fear

And it will come like line engraved on the palm of your hand
It will come for sure
as if it had always been there
and waited for us to notice 

And it will come, you'll see...

And it will come, you know
Not everything will make us tremble
Not everything will strike us
And what will open up for us
is waiting

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"Our hope is not yet lost,
That hope, two thousand years old,
To be a free people in our land
The land of Zion and Jerusalem"

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Since Reichel’s song is as much a prayer as it is a song, as is Hatikvah — to both, Amen.

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