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I find it so terribly, terribly, terribly ironic that the Torah portion for October 27th, 2018 was Vayera. In the passage, 3 messengers of God visit Abraham and Sarah, who welcome them with open arms. Ultimately, God rewards them with a son, miraculously born. In the same passage, God punishes the towns of Sodom and Gomorra. Their crime? Not homosexuality, as later misinterpretations would have us believe. It was inhospitability, disrespect of the sacred bond between host and guest.

The Tree of Life synagogue welcomed all into its doors. When the influx of messages started to roll in Saturday morning, my mind turned to my own congregation, only 2 blocks down the street. Unlike Tree of Life, our doors are only accessible by buzzer; a security guard has to let you in. What does it say about the state of our world that places of worship, places that are meant to embrace everyone, Jew and non-Jew alike, cannot even abide by the spirit of Vayera? And what does it mean that, despite the guarded doors, it could have just as easily been my congregation?

How do we, as Jews, move past this tragedy? Where do we go from here? I say we, as Jews, because it seems that many in the non-Jewish community have already moved on, or perhaps never grasped the meaning behind the attack. A non-Jew I'm friends with on social media posts, "I can't believe this could happen in my city". To my non-Jewish friends: believe it. Believe us. Anti-Semitism is alive and well, and we can't fight it alone. There is no excuse for inaction-- vote, protest, donate time, money, blood-- you know what to do. To stay silent is to be complicit.