Gratitudes: Faith-Based Responses to October 7th

© KJ Hannah Greenberg, 2025

Gratitudes: Faith-Based Responses to October 7^th
Seashell Books. USA.
Apr. 28 2025. Buy it Here.

An existential war is going on between Israel and evil. To be of help, we must post about loss, so that we know where our prayers, food, clothes, etc. ought to be sent. However, if we’re to live with faith, simultaneously, we must retain joy. That is, we must make an effort to bookmark our days with gratitude.

Accordingly, a few days after Oct. 7, 2023, I began sending my local Nshei chapter nearly daily gratitudes. I wanted to engage in acts of benevolence. I wanted to praise Hashem. Such behaviors empower good to be victorious.

Words, like balloons, can buoy us, or, has ’v’shalom, can send us crashing. When we strengthen our faith in The Aibeshter, rather than in ourselves or in each other, we soar more and fall less. Until the time when we disregard illusions and grasp verity, we’ll never be airborne. Our elevation depends on our willingness to hold fast to meaningful things and to release all tosh.

By fashioning words of thankfulness, we can become fortified. By shaping our feelings into units that are exchangeable with those of other folks, we can boost ourselves and others. Thus, it’s vital for us to guard our ideas, to decry deceptions, and to contribute to shared understandings of important concepts.

If we’re writers or visual artists, the gifts that Hashem has bestowed upon us oblige us to increase society’s awareness. In impacting the present, we change our understanding of the past as well as alter our route to the future. We must appreciate Hashem’s chessed.