At long last,
beloved souls are coming home.

After two years of torturous captivity,
we dare to breathe—
through tears,
through trembling,
through prayer.
We pray for their bodies,
broken and starved.
We pray for their minds,
wounded by terror and isolation.
We pray for those whose lives were mercilessly destroyed
that their families should be able to bury them with dignity.
We pray for all of the hostages’ families,
who have lived in the unbearable space between hope and despair
for over two years.

We pray, too, for the entire State of Israel,
a family of millions aching together,
holding each other through the unspeakable.
And we pray for Am Yisrael, the global Jewish people,
that we might be strong enough and tender enough
to receive our siblings and our parents and our children
with full hearts—to enfold them in love,
to honor their trauma with patience,
to surround them with unending care.

The work ahead will be long.
The healing will not be easy.
But we are a people of covenant,
commanded to choose life
and to repair what pain has shattered.
May we be worthy partners
in the sacred labor of return.
May this complicated homecoming
ignite the long, hard work of repair—
for them,
for us,
for all of Israel.

Amen.