Rabbi Delphine Horvilleur reflects on her sermons from October 7 to 2025 in new book
Rabbi Delphine Horvilleur released a book that revisits the talks she gave at her Paris synagogue from the October 7, 2023 attacks through the October 2025 release of the last Israeli hostages.
Delphine Horvilleur, a French rabbi, has published "Sermons sous les décombres," a collection of the speeches she delivered at the Beaugrenelle synagogue in Paris. The material spans from the night before the October 7, 2023 attacks in Israel to the October 2025 release of the last Israeli hostages held in Gaza. In revisiting these talks, Horvilleur reflects on the erosion of language and its harmful impact on societies.
She discusses the difficulty of naming her addresses, opting for the word "sermon" as the closest term, even though Jewish tradition uses "words of Torah" for such occasions. The author also confronts her own blind spots and those she sees in the broader public discourse, framing the book as a critical self-examination.
Why it matters
The book offers insight into how religious leaders grapple with language and trauma during the Israel-Gaza conflict.
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