We are living in dark days, and it is sometimes difficult to find hope. We are beset by images of the war in Israel and Gaza. Our climate is burning and species are dying. The generations struggle to understand each other’s points of view.
We live with so many unswered questions. When will the war end? How many more will die? When will the hostages be released?
And yet, it is essential to find hope, because our aspirations can drive our actions today and create a desired future reality.
Hope In Uncertainty
Rebecca Solnit speaks to moments like these. She connects hope and uncertainty most beautifully. She takes “hope” out of the binary of “optimism” and “pessimism” and shows how our “not knowing” can push us into making a difference.
Hope is not passive or waiting for things to change. The truth is that we are most hopeful when we act toward an imagined future. And yet hope also acknowledges that we do not know the outcome.
“Hope locates itself in the premises that we don’t know what will happen and that in the spaciousness of uncertainty is room to act. When you recognize uncertainty, you recognize that you may be able to influence the outcomes–you alone or you in concert with a few dozen or several million others.
Rebecca Solnit
Hope is an embrace of the unknown and knowable, an alternative to the certainty of both optimists and pessimists… It’s the belief that what we do matters even though how and when it may matter, who and what is may impact, are not things we can know beforehand…Or perhaps studying the record more carefully leads us to expect miracles – not when and where we expect them, but to expect to be astonished, to expect that we don’t know. And this is grounds to act.
Hope In Dark Times
I remember when my husband and I worked tirelessly for the Nuclear Freeze movement. We had nightly living room meetings where we educated friends and neighbors. Others lobbied government officials. We made movies about the dangers of nuclear war. Being part of a mass movement was exciting, even though we were spurred on by the real fear that our planet would be destroyed.
None of us could have imagined that it would be American President Ronald Reagan and the former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev who would end up brokering a peace agreement and begin to dismantle nuclear weapons.
This is how Solnit inspires us to take action, without knowing the outcome. It is a spiritual principle worth embracing.
Happening Right Now
I am drawing hope from groups in Israel who are actively working for peace among Arab Israelis, Jewish Israelis, and Bedouins. And also from the thousands of activists in Israel who protested in the streets of Israel against the current Israeli government
Overnight, this group of dedicated people turned to supporting those who lost loved ones, or their homes, or are being held captive. With Google Sheets and WhatsApp groups, they stepped up.
Here is the Israeli group Standing Together’s mission:
“We are building a shared home for all those who refuse hatred and choose empathy. We won’t erase our differences, but rather believe in a true partnership based on shared interests. This is the meaning of Standing Together. We envision a society that serves all of us. A just and equal society that treats every person with dignity. A society that chooses peace, justice, and independence for Israelis and Palestinians – Jews and Arabs. A society in which we all enjoy real security, adequate housing, quality education, good healthcare, a liveable climate, a decent salary, and the ability to age with dignity.”
Standing Together
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From Our Community
Here are some hopes that are shared by members of our Hineni Spiritual Community:
Bringing Light to Darkness
That everyone has a window to display their candles, and feels safe doing so.
Rob
My hope is for a peaceful and more loving, accepting world in which we collaborate to resolve the problems facing us all and distribute our natural resources with equity among all the people of the earth.
Linda Salzman
Peace and an end to the duplicity, hatred, and anger in the collective consciousness. I hope people who are blind with propaganda see the light and why they are being consumed by lies and redirect that to right the ship.
Susan Grissom
Hope that the conflict in Israel will end.
Ter Lieberstein
I hope and pray that children and families feel strength, safety and the deepest depths of their love in this season of darkness.
Shoshana Stombaugh
My hope is that all the hostages will go free, and that there will be a strategic path towards a REAL lasting peace in Israel.
Susan Kronish Grotenstein
Tonight we light five candles (really, six total.) You light the shamash (helper candle, then five more.)
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Happy Hanukkah,
Rabbi Jill and the team
I have one question that has been part of my whole life.
Why do I get left out?
Now I am 70 and missing my husband. I am asking that question about why I don’t seee my children and grandchildren regularly.
I don’t get a good asnwer so I wondered if I am asking the wrong question.
my next question is What is going on inside me? What is my need? What is Abba trying to teach me?
Often I am the one to instigate a meeting and I am the one to go to them.
Will this bring about thought and action from them? I don’t know?
At one time I hated being in confusion and in that place of not knowing but Abba has taught me it is ok to be in that place because in his time he will walk you to a place of knowing and it will be more meaningful than just being the answer