Sometimes I yearn for those quiet days during COVID. The streets were still, the beaches empty—just people walking in their own neighbourhoods, enjoying the fresh air and warm sun. There were telephone calls, and the comforting smell of bread baking in homes all around my own. Sometimes I think about how wonderful those quiet days truly were,. Boarders were closed, streets were empty and there was a stillness I had never before experienced.  We simply could not rush around, shop in busy department stores, or travel long distances to visit friends and family. Our home, during that time, was truly our sanctuary.

On this day, December 21st, I think back to one week ago, the very first day of Hanukkah, when two insane human beings took up enormous guns with the intention of murdering beautiful souls—beautiful Jewish souls—on our iconic Bondi Beach. As I write this, I find myself asking: what in the world is missing? What is it that allows so much hatred to exist that a father and son could plan something so incomprehensibly violent? An act so insane that it has left a nation—and indeed the world—in grief.

One of the rabbis I listened to last week, Rabbi Mendel Slavin, used the word impossible. It is impossible to understand what could inspire two people from the same family to commit something so completely, unimaginably evil. And yet, this rabbi also offered us an antidote—one that has inspired me every single day since, and will continue to inspire me for the rest of my life.

There are moments when you hear, see, or read something that shifts you into another dimension of being. Once you have heard it, once you have learned it, you cannot be the same. That is what happened to me this week when I listened to the Rabbi Mendel from Cremorne Synagogue. He said: the only way we can combat this kind of hatred—this insanity—is to be insanely good in our own lives.

What does that mean? It means that whatever you think can make a difference, whatever you believe can bring down light, whatever you know can spread goodness in the world you live in—no matter how uncomfortable it may be—be insanely good, and do it.

There are so many opportunities to be insanely good. As you read this, you may remember moments when you had a kind or generous idea, thought about acting on it, and then didn’t. Now is the time. Now is the time to act on those insanely good, kind, generous, beautiful impulses. Because each and every time you show kindness, goodness, or generosity to another human being, your light shines brighter, and it spreads wider—through your community and into the world.

And so this is my message for today: the last day of Hanukkah, my late husband’s birthday, and the day I gather with my family to celebrate love and sharing—the values we hope to carry forward from this moment on.

Be insanely good.

Be insanely kind.

Be insanely generous.

Be insanely bright.

And may all the light you call down from the universe flood this planet, from this moment forth.