by Rabbi Josh Knobel
וְכָל־בָּנַיִךְ לִמוּדֵי יְיָ וְרַב שְׁלוֹם בָּנַיִךְ.
“All of your children shall be students of Adonai, and great shall be the peace of your children (Isaiah 54:13).”
Our sages teach us to read not בָּנַיִךְ, your children, but rather, בֹּנַיִךְ, your builders, suggesting that our children shall become the builders who fashion peace in our world, should we heed their call for peacemaking.
That call was sounded less than a week after 14 students and three staff members died in a school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, when teen survivors mobilized to launch March for Our Lives, a nationwide protest on March 24 to protest gun violence.
With marches and protests planned at more than 800 locations throughout the world, the March intends to demonstrate support for victims and inspire legislative measures to curb gun violence.
“We cannot allow one more child to be shot at school,” states the March’s mission statement. “We cannot allow one more teacher to make a choice to jump in front of a firing assault rifle to save the lives of students. We cannot allow one more family to wait for a call or text that never comes…”
Unfortunately, a school shooting at Great Mills High School in Maryland this Tuesday morning that killed one child and left another in critical condition confirmed just how pressing the matter of student safety remains.
We invite you to join us this Friday night at 6:15 p.m. for Shabbat Services, as we hear from two teenage survivors from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, and to join Rabbi Stern and Rabbi Laufer as we head to the march to lend our voices to the call of our children. Though our shuttle from Wise is now full, anyone who would like to caravan as a group may meet at Wise at 8 a.m. on Saturday morning. We will leave promptly at 8:15 a.m.
If their promise is yet to ring true… if our children, our builders, shall deliver peace within our midst as the prophet Isaiah once proclaimed… then it appears more will be required of us than voices of sympathy or expressions of faith. Rather, our sympathy and our faith must compel us to act with conviction and with clarity to ensure domestic tranquility and provide for the common defense of all our nation’s children.
Then, shall the words of our prophet be fulfilled, “Great shall be the peace of your children.”