In his poem “Love Song” the great poet Rilke sought to give expression to the affections of two lovers, separate yet fused together at the soul.

Famously, he employs the image of violin strings, writing “everything that touches us, me and you, touches us together like a violin’s bow, which draws one voice out of two separate strings.”

We, like the lovers of the poem, must find a language and a life that permits us to understand our destiny alongside and intertwined with Israel, like two strings on a violin, distinct, yet all the while making one sound.

The time is now for the Diaspora and Israel to make beautiful music together.

Rabbi Elliot J. Cosgrove, Ph.D., Park Avenue Synagogue