Rabbi David shared these words on 3/18/19 at the Muslim Association of Puget Sound at their invitation during a Vigil and Anti-Islamophobia Teach-In responding to the horrid attack in Christchurch, NZ.

Yitgadal v'yitkadash, sh'may raba. (Amen)
May the name of the holy blessed One be made great and holy.
Asalaam aleikum, family.
With ahava rabah - a deep love and a caring spirit, today I am here to convey the Jewish community’s embrace and love for our Muslim siblings here in the Salish Sea region and throughout the world. We see you, and we are with you. We are you.
We know that violence can have different forms and particular targets. But I stand here today to tell you, my Muslim siblings, that we are one, and none of these hanieous violent acts of racism and Xenophobia will keep us from pursuing a we that includes us all.
I am here in these most mournful of circumstances, reliving the deep heartbreak of the attack on us all at the Tree of Life Synagogue by a white supremacist with aims similar to this past Friday's murderer.
Let us all rise up boldly together against the sacrilegious vile of white nationalism recognizing our own sins and complicity in feeding the growth of their movement. Let us continue to reach to one another as we have in synagogues and masjids, in the streets and at the coffee shop, in churches and neighborhood associations, in our workplaces and with our families of origin.
Let us not doubt that history is being written at this moment. Now it is more important than ever for the Jewish and Muslim communities to unite, and join our Black and Brown advocates for justice, in combating the forces that threaten all of us!
The Rabbi Joachim Prinz said at the March on Washington: “Neighbor is not a geographic term. It is a moral concept.” Together as neighbors, let us find our innate courage and our human resilience, our depth of compassion and our solidarity of protection, let our ancestors guide and our grandchildren demand, that while we mourn, we connect, and then we act, and we celebrate, even.
Years from now, we will have to answer what, if anything, we did to defeat the scourge of white nationalism and the plight of white supremacy. Let our answers be based in our actions of today. Let us keep trying. I believe in what we can do together.
And then. And then. And then we will have realized the prayer of the mourner's kaddish and have made great and holy the name of our oneness.

The ancient rabbis called used the named Yom HaKippurim for what today we call Yom Kippur. That holy day, a full half-year ago and just over a half-year away (because of the leap year), could be seen as the full reflection of the holiday now upon us - Purim.

Yom HaKippurim, literally, the day of the (multiple) atonements, has been drashed over and again as the day that is like Purim: yom (day) ha'k' (the likes) purim (of Purim). 

But what does Yom Kippur and Purim have in common? For one, they are both days well beyond the ordinary. On one, we express this by abstaining from any food or drink, while on the other by excessive eating and drinking. Both Purim and Yom Kippur draw upon our relationship to uncertainty - one acknowledges the ways in which our enemies might strike arbitrarily (cursed be Haman) and the other acknowledges that we are lacking control in our lives in the refrain who shall live and who shall die. In each, we have a reluctant s/hero - Jonah who at first avoids prophecy and runs away from his calling, and Esther/Hadassah who does not want to hear Mordechai's ask of confronting the King.

Yet perhaps the most striking is the possibility in each of these holidays for reconciliation. Yom Kippur perhaps sets this up slightly more obviously: we are told that Yom Kippur atones for our relationship with G-d, but for relationships with other people, we must do the work of making things right. Similarly on Purim: we are told to go out and deliver treats to our neighbors and friends - mishlo'ach manot. In the days ahead, perhaps let us use this mitzvah of going out of our way to bring treats to others to notice who we feel hesitance to approach. For whom bringing a treat might be a confrontation of our own broken relationships. Perhaps this time can be used, should we choose, to reach out beyond the comfortable and bridge these two seemingly disparate holidays on opposite sides of the year - and in doing so, bridge a divide between ourselves and another human. May it be a season of increased joy uncovered through the repair of our relationships. Hag Purim simcha!
-Rabbi David

PS- Passover is coming! Check out this link for a preview of events, mutual aid, host-guest pairing, and more.