Introduction
Five months ago , Rabbi Menachem Creditor and I edited Seder Interrupted to provide readings , prayers , poetry , and essays to help us all in our struggle with the “ Festival of Freedom ” while we were not feeling very free , and while so many of our people were hostages in Gaza . When the book came out , one of my colleagues called me and said , “ You know you will have to do this for the Yammim Noraim also .” I responded that of course the hostages would be freed by then but that I appreciate that we would still be struggling with this year when the fall holidays come around . At that time , I could not imagine that our hostages would still be imprisoned in Gaza . I did not want to imagine that as we enter the holiday season we would still be living in a time of such uncertainty , such pain , with such a dearth of answers .
Yet , here we are .
I have been giving a lot of thought to these holidays . We are entering a very difficult season . There are sections of the liturgy that are very difficult to deal with right now , whether we are talking about Unetaneh Tokef , or the idea of Yom Hadin , or the martyrology . As a biblicist , I always focus on the Torah and Haftarah readings for the High Holidays . The Torah and Haftarah readings focus on familial loss , whether actual or threatened , and this year , they hit our ears differently . Abraham almost sacrifices one son and sends away another . Hagar thinks that she is seeing her son dying .
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