violence shelter, collecting clothes for the YWCA, working with one of our local refugee organizations and setting up for National Night Out, which this year is later in that week. All of these are acts of gemilut hasadim, lovingkindness.
The hope? These very acts bring me hope.
Recently, we read the story of Rahab, described as a zonah, a harlot, a sex worker. She signaled Joshua and Caleb with a thin thread that was a symbol of safety and protection.
Thread and hope are related words in the Hebrew. Tikvah, like the Israeli national anthem, HaTikvah. And cord, tikvah hut ha-shani, comes from the same root kavah. to bind together, collect, expect, or wait. That’ s what we do when we join together as community. That’ s hope.
The hope? It comes from our children. They want to make friendship bracelets, like Rahab’ s thread, on Tisha B’ av as one of our projects of gemilut hasadim, to pass out to our neighbors to show our love at National Night Out. They generated the idea. Our children are our hope.
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