Friday, October 10

I am a big Seinfeld fan.  I am also a night-owl, so when Jerry Seinfeld came up with his bit about “Night Guy” and “Morning Guy” in each of us, I could completely relate. You know the one:  Night Guy stays up late, doing what he does, and he has no regard for what Morning Guy will deal with later. Morning Guy wakes up thoroughly exhausted, looks at the mess, and says, “Night Guy always screws Morning Guy.”

The Hostage Release Deal feels like a Night Guy/Morning Guy situation. The world is celebrating the Night Guy moment with full hearts, and for good reason. Hostages are coming home! Families that have been waiting in agony might finally see their loved ones again. Some believe that with the withdrawal of the IDF and the pause in fighting, maybe this might even be a path toward peace. It’s pretty easy to get swept up in the energy. That’s Night Guy energy: bold, excited, happy. Night Guy loves the moment. He’s not thinking about the morning after.

Morning Guy will have to live with the result. In the morning, around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners (Israel-hating, Jew-hating, blood-thirsty terrorists) will have been released to freedom. Remember what happened when Gilad Shalit, the original Hostage Poster Child, was returned to us? In that exchange, one of the terrorists who was given freedom was Yahya Sinwar, the guy who went on to mastermind the October 7th Massacre. Who knows what lies ahead, but Morning Guy will have to deal with it, as he’s left holding Night Guy’s coffee and wondering, “What did we agree to last night?“
 
Today, though, at this minute, I want to revel in the Night Guy moment. First, let’s just get the hostages home. Let us allow them to heal, let us help them to heal, help their families heal. And maybe we can even permit ourselves to believe that this time will be different, that we’ve learned from all the other late nights of history. Life is not a sit-com; it’s a reality show. Still, let us pray that for once, Night Guy didn’t completely screw Morning Guy. Let us pray for the future of the soon to be former hostages and let us continue to pray for a peace that outlasts the morning.

Am Yisrael Chai!