Translation by Yehoshua Siskin
Chodesh tov! Despite everything, today and tomorrow mark the new month of Kislev, a month of light following the darkness of yesterday's brutal terrorist attack in Jerusalem.
The murder of Aryeh Shechopek while waiting for a bus that would take him to his yeshiva, as well as the wounding of nineteen others, is an appropriate, yet terribly tragic reminder of the message of Hanukkah, which we will observe later this month: the light of the Jewish people in its homeland will always triumph over the darkness represented by its enemies.
This is the same struggle that occurred between the tiny Jewish nation of the Maccabees and the mighty empire of ancient Greece. In its current version, we are confronted by Islamic extremists and terror.
This struggle concerns faith, truth, and eternal values, which will never be vanquished and will triumph in the end.
On Rosh Chodesh there are special additions to our prayers and this morning they seem especially relevant. In the Musaf prayer for Rosh Chodesh we entreat the Almighty as follows:
"Our God and God of our fathers, renew for us this month for good and for blessing, for gladness and for joy, for deliverance and for consolation, for livelihood and for sustenance, for good life and for peace, for the forgiving of sin and the pardoning of wrongdoing, and may this month mark the end to all our sorrows and the beginning of our souls' redemption."
Amen. May everyone hear only good news and have a blessed month.
