Opinion
‘No storm has ever had the power to sweep us away’
The Chief Rabbi’s message for Rosh Hashanah
September 18, 2025 14:14
2 min read
The Chief Rabbi’s message for Rosh Hashanah
September 18, 2025 14:14As we enter the Yamim Noraim (the Days of Awe), I know that many in our community are carrying a great deal of pain. We are deeply concerned about the plight of the remaining hostages, the future peace and security of Israel and the widespread suffering of so many. Around the world, Jews are enduring a wave of anti-Jewish hatred that feels relentless. Every day seems to bring new anxiety. As the public conversation about Israel grows harsher, and as the very legitimacy of her existence is questioned, we feel our own lives diminished.
And yet, I believe this Rosh Hashanah can mark an inflection point for us all.
When our patriarch Jacob was close to death, he described his son Joseph as “Even Yisrael” – “the Stone of Israel.” Joseph was the first Hebrew exiled from his home and forced to build a life elsewhere. He achieved prominence and amassed influence, while remaining faithful to his values and identity throughout. Our sages note that the Hebrew term even (stone) is a composite of the words av and ben – “parent” and “child”. Joseph embodied this fusion: he internalised the teachings of his parents and he passed them faithfully to his children. That unbroken chain made him, and makes us, a “Stone of Israel.”
Stones endure. They weather storms. They are battered by wind and rain, but they are indestructible. So, too, with the Jewish people. Across the centuries, through expulsions, persecutions and defamations, we have remained a permanent presence in the world. No storm has ever had the power to sweep us away.
When I travel to communities across the country, I witness this same strength. It is sometimes called resilience, but I don’t believe that word is quite right. In the original Latin, resilience means to “rebound” or “recoil”. It suggests that we are shrugging off this experience and simply snapping back to where we were before. But that is impossible. Sadly, we can never turn the clock back.
In Jewish tradition, we speak instead of nechamah – solace that transforms us. In the Torah, nechamah does not mean forgetting the pain; it means drawing new life from it, allowing a hidden strength to surface. Nechamah is not overcoming but becoming; not closure, but disclosure: the revealing of what was always within us, waiting for its moment.
And that is what the Yamim Noraim call upon us to do. We look back at the year that has passed, not only to grieve or to regret, but to draw out the lessons it has etched into our souls. And we emerge with a deeper purpose.
As we enter this festive period, let us take our lead from the “Stone of Israel”. Let us draw upon the wisdom of our ancestors, the values they entrusted to us and the faith that carried them through ordeals that we cannot possibly imagine. Let us meet adversity, not only by surviving it, but by also shaping from it a future of even greater strength. And let us teach that legacy to our children, inspiring them to be strong, unbroken, happy and fulfilled.
This storm has not yet passed. But like the Stone of Israel, so we will remain: perhaps weathered, certainly changed, but undiminished – a people permanent, purposeful and full of hope.
May we soon once again see the fulfilment of the famous verse from the Hallel Psalms, “Even ma’asu habonim hayetah lerosh pinah” – “The stone that the builders have rejected has become a cornerstone”!
May you all be blessed with a happy, healthy, fulfilling, and most importantly, peaceful New Year.
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