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The attack on Israel and its people hit close to home, as Rabbi Joshua Lief of Temple Shalom noted on Tuesday that members of the synagogue have lost cousins living in Israel. There is also a temple member who lives in Israel now who has not been reached as well.
"Murdering people as they sleep on the Sabbath morning. Beheading parents and kidnapping their children. Marching women naked through the streets. Putting toddlers in cages and throwing trash at them and torturing them in public. These are no one's rules of war. … This is evil …"
Lief offered powerful, pointed words during an interfaith service for Israel on Tuesday at the Temple in Wheeling. He and other local faith leaders joined not only to pray for Israel and its people, but also to call out the acts from Hamas this past weekend for what they are: pure evil.
"What we have witnessed over the past several days are barbaric acts of injustice … that truly set our world up for global conflict," the Rev. Chris Figaretti of Vineyard Church said. "God surprise us in the days ahead of how this story unfolds -- not in World War III, not in bloody genocide, not in Armageddon, but in peace in Jerusalem and miraculous reconciliation."
We must do all we can to support our friends at Temple Shalom in the days ahead.