October 7 & The Promise of Ken Yerbeh Three Years Later

Pharaoh sat before his adviserss, and from his mouth came a two-letter word, lest, lest they multiply, that they may not grow, that they may not strengthen, that they may be broken. And the Holy Spirit answered him with the exact same word. Only one letter was changed. Yes. Yes, they shall multiply. This week marks 3 years since October 7th. Back then too, someone planned less that we would break, that we would scatter, that we would lose our faith. And what actually happened? In the mid '90s, two psychologists from the University of North Carolina, Richard Tadeshi and Lawrence Calhoun, discovered something that surprised him. People who have gone through a severe crisis are not just damaged. Many of them discover within themselves a deeper connection to others, a strength they didn't know they had, and a stronger faith. They called it post-traumatic growth. 4 months after October 7th, a survey by the Lazar Institute examined what happened to our faith. A third of the Jews in Israel said it had strengthened. Only 8% said it had weakened. And this year, for the first time since that morning, there is not a single hostage in the Gaza Strip. All 255 have returned home. The living and the fallen. The last of them after 843 days. And also inside each one of us sits a little pharaoh. It whispers, "What if? What if I don't succeed? What if this breaks me? What if I end up alone?" In the difficult moments, this voice sounds like the only truth. But our sages saw something amazing here. In the Torah, it is written, "So they multiplied, can your bay," in the future tense. And in the garra in tractate soda they ask since this already happened it should have been written so they multiplied can rau in the past tense and rash lakishi answers that the holy spirit was prophesying through them. This is not a description of the past. It's a promise for the future. And Rashi explains they said less they multiply. Penerbe and the Holy Spirit said so they multiplied. And if we look at the letters themselves, the letter pay is a mouth. The letter cuff is a palm of a hand. Pharaoh spoke and we acted. We saw heroes who rushed forward to save others. Hands that volunteered. Hands that put on to fill in for the first time. hands that lit a candle for someone they didn't know. We don't know why, but we know what we chose to build in their memory. And faith is the tool that turns the mouth into a palm. The word of those who want us to shrink into an action that makes us grow. So the next time the inner voice whispers to us, lest not to be afraid to trust, the answer is already written in the future tense. They said lest and and 3 years later we answer with one voice. Yes. May it