We stand at a very fateful moment in Jewish and world history, and all of us are feeling the weight of everything unfolding around us. This Erev Tisha B’Av, the whole world is trembling. We are living in a time of fragility and trauma, and more than anything, I find myself looking at the importance of the relationships between us as people and between us and the world.

Because that is what our Jewish sages did when their world was trembling, and they taught us to do the same. Our sages discussed the centrality of faith, hope, and responsibility over and over again, often through one word that comes up repeatedly: Ayeka, where are you?! Which is the first question Hashem (God) asks Adam in the Garden of Eden, and since then, asks all of us. When Moses says, “Eicha esa levadi, how will I bear it alone?”, our teachers say he is actually asking us that same question.

Ayeka, eicha, both written in Hebrew in the very same way. One word that forces us to examine our responsibility to each other and the world: where are we, how do we treat the people around us, and what are we building? When I observe life in Jerusalem, our holy city that I have the privilege of calling home as the rabbi of the Zion and the Israeli Rabbinic Seminary, I watch relationships of care take shape and unfold, and I know we must ask how we cultivate a deep love for our people wherever we are and all of humanity. Our beloved Holy City was destroyed because of Sinat Hinam, of hatred amongst us, and now we must heal our people through Ahavat Israel for all. We need this transformation urgently amongst ourselves at the level of neighbors, our global one Jewish family, and humanity at large.

Since October 7th, we have been living through a period of intense transition. The whole world is full of hatred, extremism, and frailty. On Tisha B’Av, we stand directly on the threshold between sinat chinam (baseless hatred) and ahavat chinam (unconditional love). The call Ayeka-Eicha is a reminder to choose the latter and for us to teach others to make the same choice.

Of course, many of our fellow Jews are asking personal versions of Ayeka-Eicha right now. When faced with rising antisemitism, our people are raising serious concerns about what safety looks like, and what kind of future their children will have. Our people’s longing is real, and we owe our fellow Jews the certainty that each of us belongs, is loved, and is part of our one story wherever we live.

These are heavy questions, and they often cause me to pause and reconnect with the greatest truth about the Jewish people. We are a people that knows trauma all too well. Yet, remarkably, we are forever and eternally rebels of hope. In the face of tragedy and despair, we rebel by courageously creating goodness and models of kindness. Hope is a behavior that starts with how we treat each other. Just as the stars shine in the sky, the Jewish people must face the darkness and keep shining the light of hope and faith here on the ground.

The Torah itself begins by recounting the first battle between darkness and light. Bereishit, the story of creation, begins with darkness, what devours us and our hope. But within that darkness, we understand how fragile we all are and how much we all need humility, courage, and faith. It is out of humbleness that we can then learn to follow Hashem and say, “Yehi ohr, let there be light.” Not for us as individuals, but for all our people and world, in the holiest way possible.

Hassidic masters teach that Tisha B’Av is the starting line of the road to Yom Kippur. More than what happens on this day of mourning for what happened, we must decide who we will become in the coming year by the time we reach the Day of Atonement.

The path forward is far from simple, but from my perspective, we are all privileged to be leaders in this time and are called to re-establish together our covenant of hope and faith. We need to respond to this trembling time through the lens of a leadership of responsibility, courage, and generosity, taking care of our fellow Jewish people and all of humanity. We have to make sure that everyone has a place, and that we build our home with faith, humility, and the ancient holy message of peace.

With the world so divided and the gaps between us widening, we cannot act alone. We must band together and resolve that in the face of every darkness, we will behave together as light. We must bind ourselves to one another, build a network based on collective action, and choose to become the hope and healing our people and world so desperately need.

On Tisha B’Av, many of us turn to Jerusalem, the beating heart of our people. It is essential that our eternal capital not only be a sacred symbol of the past. The City of God and of Gold has to be a symbol of our sacred future too. Jerusalem is a teacher of collective healing and hope to all. We must be a spiritual and moral home for all our people, for all of Israeli society, and for all humanity, appreciating their worries, needs, dreams, and contributions. May the Jerusalem we all build together, wherever we are, be a home of hope and healing. May we all be messengers Shlichim of Jerusalem, and create together a leadership of hope and healing for us and for all. Amen.