Rabbi Daniel Dorsch’s Rosh Hashanah Message for 2025

Brothers and Sisters.

When I arrived in Israel in the weeks after October 7, I caught a glimpse of what Chaim Nachman Bialik must have felt when he wrote his haunting poem Al HaShchita (On the Slaughter). As I put on a tactical helmet and bulletproof vest and walked through Kibbutz Kfar Aza, I saw things I can never unsee:

A campaign banner for a candidate who was no longer alive.

Oranges scattered beneath a tree, never to be picked.

A sukkah still standing, because no one from the home remained to take it down.

Paradise felt lost.

For a few days, I too felt paralyzed. Yet for you, this is not a passing moment: you continue to live this reality every single day as you wait for the hostages to come home.

This Rosh Hashanah, there will be empty seats across Israel that should have been filled by your loved ones. At our own family table, we will hold space for a hostage still waiting to return, praying that next year they will be free to join in celebration of the holy days.

I will never forget what I saw, nor what I learned. Across Israel, signs read: b’yachad l orech kol ha-derech: We are together for the duration of the journey.

This journey is not an easy one. There are no good choices, only painful ones. Yet know this: as your brothers and sisters, our souls are eternally bound together.

Nearly two years ago at our Atlanta community rally, I shared these words: A good friend doesn’t throw you a rope when you are in a hole. A good friend climbs down into the hole and asks, “How can we get out together?”

Never forget that we are with you for the duration of this journey. We are in this together.

Am Yisrael Chai.

Daniel Dorsch is the senior rabbi at Congregation Etz Chaim in Marietta, Ga., and the immediate past president of the Atlanta Rabbinical Association.