'Time Is Running Out' -- Again

A timeless prayer for the hostages brings solace and sorrow.

One year later: The message on this hourglass exhibit that I photographed Jan. 22, 2024 at Hostage Square in Tel Aviv — ‘Time is running out’ — is even more urgent.

In times of crisis throughout our long history, we as a people have turned to prayer.

At this moment, when the fate of the hostages in Gaza hangs in the balance, when Israel’s leaders seek to balance an impossible equation, weighing empathy and compassion vs. security and deterrence, we turn to a prayer that is recited in synagogues around the world every Monday and Thursday morning prior to returning the Torah scroll to the Ark.

The immediacy of the words of the text offers both a measure of comfort – and sadness – in knowing that for centuries Jews have faced such crises as ours today.

May the words of the prayer become reality “now, swiftly and soon.”

Acheinu: “As for our brothers [and sisters] of the whole house of Israel who are in distress or captivity, on sea or land, may the All-Present have compassion on them and lead them from distress to relief, from darkness to light, and from oppression to freedom, now, swiftly and soon – and let us say: Amen.”