Israeli poet Bacol Serlui turned to Tehillim as the rockets began falling on Simhat Torah and her son was called away to war: “I sat with my Tehillim, reciting from beginning to end until the close of the holiday, until my tears dried up and the breaking news broke me once again. I recite the Psalms again and again and feel that the Tehillim are reading me, dubbing my fear and sorrow, giving me a voice. Three millennia ago a Jew sat and poured out the agony of his soul in times of peace and war, and here he reaches out a hand of prayer and speaks to our own day, until we will be redeemed.” Read Serlui’s essay on King David, the warrior poet, and his Psalms’ ability to reach us across the millennia.

In reviewing a special issue on War in Jewish thought (TRADITION, Winter 2006), Yitzchak Blau draws to our attention material from our journal’s archive. This collection of essays remains sadly appropriate to the current moment, and we hope it will help frame your thinking about the traumas we have experienced these past two weeks as we pray that the IDF proves successful in defeating our enemies.