For 843 days, Jewish communities around the world worked and waited for the 251 hostages taken on October 7 to return home to their families. Visible symbols, like yellow ribbons, dog tags, empty chairs served as a constant reminder and a tangible prayer, for their return. And finally, on January 26, the 251st hostage, Ram Gvili, was recovered from Gaza and returned to his family for burial.

In the courtyard outside of the Bernard Zell entrance three trees have borne fluttering yellow ribbons through the changing seasons, each ribbon bearing the name of a person held hostage and tied on by our middle school students. Finally, their branches are empty again as members of our 8th grade class went out on a bitterly cold morning to gently remove the last of the ribbons to be placed in the geniza, a repository for sacred texts that are no longer usable. We offered two prayers for that sacred work that morning: a blessing from our daily prayers, matir asurim, praising God who frees the captive; and shehecheyanu, a blessing for a long-awaited occasion. It was a quiet solemn ritual reflecting the mixed blessing of the moment. A truly meaningful moment and hopefully one that never needs to be repeated.