We at ALEPH are heartbroken by the relentless and overwhelming violence in Israel/Palestine. We understand that one people’s right to self-determination should not come at the cost of another’s. We cannot build the Holy Land on the corpses of our siblings, cousins and neighbors. As Etty Hillesum, a Dutch Jewish mystic and writer who was killed in the Holocaust, said, “What matters is not whether we preserve our lives at any cost, but how we preserve them.” 

We recognize that Jewish Renewal clergy, communities, and individuals have a variety of relationships to Israel/Palestine, and a range of views on the violence unfolding in Gaza. In contemplating how we might honor our differences and find our commonalities, we are sharing ALEPH’s Principle 16 today. 

We encourage you to share this Principle at your Passover sederim, and engage with it as you feel called in the weeks and months to come:

ALEPH Principle 16:
_{We are committed to living in and drawing inspiration from Israel, land of enduring history, seat of sacred narrative, and land of the Bible. We do so in mutual recognition of our cousins, the Palestinians, and each other’s right to freedom, self-determination, justice, security and peace. We are committed to skillful efforts that seek a peaceful way to share the land of Israel/Palestine among all peoples who cherish it and call it home.}

Engagement could look like: 

1. Having conversations about what the statement means to members of your community.

2. Putting aside what you don’t agree on and sharing the depth of your anguish in mutual love and respect for one another.

3. Engaging in embodied rituals to grieve, so we can mourn and care for our shattered hearts. Directing that energy into love and hope for the future.

4. Celebrating the return of hostages or any other moment you want to celebrate.

5. Finding commonalities on what the statement means and discerning how your community would like to take action on what you agree on.

6. Supporting Israel with prayer and love, and mourning the loss of all in Israel and Palestine who have been harmed, displaced, or killed as a result of this conflict.

“Ultimately, we have just one moral duty: to reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves, more and more peace, and to reflect it toward others. And the more peace there is in us, the more peace there will also be in our troubled world.” ~Etty Hillesum