One High Holy Day prayer, playing on the homophony of the Hebrew words for “end” and “begin,” reads, “The year has ended [tikhlah] along with its curses; let a year begin [teḥel] along with its blessings.” Without a doubt, the pandemic has been among the year’s curses, and most Israelis feel the same about the recent announcement that there will be yet another election in March. But Ruthie Blum notes that this year has had many blessings for the Jewish state as well:

Last week, the Helios Ray, a ship owned by an Israeli company, was struck by a missile fired either by the Iranian military or one of its many proxy groups. Alex Fishman comments: