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Buffalo. The Taiwanese Church in California. And, because these things come in threes, Texas. Earlier this week our newsfeeds were filled again with reports of a(nother) school shooting, this time in Texas. And, once again, broken-hearted, we allowed our tears to flow and our rage to boil.

We know that 19 children who were days away from finishing 4th grade now lay dead, as do two adults, in the latest mass shooting.  Many have offered prayers during this obviously tragic time and doing so is a beautifully Jewish act. After all, we are a people who reference every Shabbat the Biblical story in which God entered the course of human history and answered our prayers, delivering a people from a world of pain and hardship, of slavery, of bondage, of mourning. Our liturgy elevates those words as a prooftext, filling us with the hope that, once again, God can intervene to stop the callous bloodshed of our youth…as well as so many others.

Yet simultaneously our tradition holds that God no longer works those sea-splitting miracles. God relies upon us to be divine hands working for good. So, yes, we turn to prayer, as we should. But our prayer does not absolve us from action. As we know: with great freedom comes the responsibility to act responsibly.

As we navigate these very dark days, let us find the strength to become the agents of change that will heal the brokenness around us. Let us be models of goodness and kindness. Let our sorrow be transformed into strength, our words transformed into deeds.