The Littlest Prisoner

Kfir Bibas was the youngest of the 253 hostages taken into Gaza by Hamas during the terror attacks against Israel on October 7. His smiling face has penetrated our hearts. He is, with his parents and 4 year old brother Ariel, still held prisoner. It has been 139 days. 

There has been an incredible amount of effort expended from both family members and ordinary people including non-Jews, to keep the plight of the hostages before the world. But many have moved on, are indifferent, or, sadly, in the explosion of Jew-hate celebrate their captivity. 

I asked Rabbi Reisenberg, founder of the Central Shul in Melbourne, “What else can we as Christians do?” 

He replied that there is a time-tested response that is common to both our faiths and that is prayer. He quoted the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks who wrote, “Prayer is the profoundest expression of our faith, that at the heart of reality is a Presence that cares, a G-d who listens, a creative Force that brought us into being in love. It is this belief more than any other that redeems life from solitude and fate from tragedy.”

“Jews at our daily prayers in the Synagogues,” he said, “have included a variety of pertinent Psalms including 20, 22, 68, 123, 122, 159 together with this special Prayer for the Hostages. Please make these payers part of your prayer routine.”