This past Wednesday many of us enjoyed at least a partial snow day, drinking hot chocolate in our pajamas.  Others braved the icy conditions in an attempt to continue on with their regular plans, refusing to be beaten by the weather.  I sat with my wife on Wednesday morning in front of the television to hear the weather report.  The reporter showed video from different neighborhoods and interviewed several frustrated home owners and motorists.  One woman's response caught my attention and I'd like to share it with you. 

A little woman (no more than 5 feet tall) was pictured on her driveway working incredibly hard to remove the snow with a huge smile on her face.  While most people complain about the shoveling, putting down the ice-melt and brushing off the car, this woman reported that she loves these big snowfalls not because of the natural beauty, but because of the beauty that it brings out in others.  People offer to shovel neighbor's walks, push their cars out of the snow and help one another across the ice.  How interesting that a moment of terrible frustration on the part of one individual gives another the opportunity to come to the rescue and save the day.

At moments of great tragedy or difficulty, the community pulls together.  Whether it is the folks in our neighborhood who help one another plow their way through the mountains of snow, or America as a nation coming together in times of national tragedy.

The horrific and senseless events of this past week in Arizona are an extreme, but yet another example of our instinct to rally together and overcome our differences in the wake of a national catastrophe.  We will, as President Obama has encouraged us to, "nurture the relationships with those who are still with us."  We watch in awe as political and social borders and boundaries that we perceived to be so strong, become virtually non-existent when it comes to offering a helping hand or a shoulder to cry on.

In our Torah portion this shabbat, we recount another national tragedy.  Just as the Children of Israel seem to escape the clutches of Pharaoh and the Egyptians, they were attacked by surprise and from behind by the nation of Amalek who showed no mercy even to the weak.  We were left devastated.  How could an entire people have overcome such a terrible national setback?  How could they rebound to become the nation that in just next week's reading receives the Torah in parashat Yitro?  We can only imagine the problems our ancestors faced and the tremendous effort it must have taken to recover as a nation.  Such a feat could only have been accomplished if all the survivors pulled together to pickup the pieces and rebuild as one strong community.

May those injured in the brutal attack in Tucson make a complete recovery; may those who were massacred forever rest in peace.
May we take away from these events lessons of love, kinship, and genuine caring for one another; and may this Shabbat bring complete Shalom to our whole community.