Over Yom Kippur, I went to the library and the synagogue, where a book by Rachel Goldberg-Polin was on display. It is called When We See You Again, and it’s a memoir of her experience on October 7th, centered on the loss of her son, Hirsch. Now, I am someone who reads a lot and absorbs a lot, but the minute I opened this book and read the first words of the introduction, I started crying.

Even just thinking about the book makes me start crying. I think the reason is that what we in the world are dealing with today is an ideology of death—a love of death versus a love of life.

When someone has a love of death, you can’t argue with them. You can’t reason with them that they will have a better life if they change, because what they want is to die. The worst part is that this wish to die is something that is brainwashed into people.

It’s not something they are born with, and brainwashing is very, very hard to break. When someone is trapped in an environment of brainwashing, you can’t entirely blame them for their surroundings. At the same time, however, you have to hold them responsible because they are committing acts that result in mass murder.

This is a deeply complex problem that we face with terrorism. But at the end of the day, I think one thing we can all agree on is the love of life. If we just hold on to that and put it front and center, I believe it will help us unify around so much.