Retiring Chief Justice Hayut urges Israelis not to give up hope

Supreme Court Chief Justice Esther Hayut calls on her associates in the judicial authority, and the nation at large, not to give up hope for better times in the face of the conflict currently raging around Israel’s borders, in a letter she publishes this morning as she retires.

Hayut has served as Supreme Court president since 2017 and is stepping down having reached the age of 70, the mandatory age of retirement for judges.

“We are in one of the most difficult periods in the history of the country. We are burying our dead and bandaging our wounds, and praying for the speedy return of all the captives and the missing to their families,” writes Hayut.

In her letter of departure, the outgoing president cites a poem published in 2016 by Israeli poet Anadad Eldan, a member of Kibbutz Be’eri, called “On the walls of Be’eri” reflecting his feelings about the death of his daughter, which has taken on special poignancy in the wake of the October 7 Hamas assault and the atrocities the terror group committed at Be’eri in particular.

“There is an hour of billowing darkness, yet there is dawn and light,” the poem concludes.

“Surely this is an hour of billowing darkness, but as Anadad Eldan wrote there is dawn and light, and we must not give up hope for other days, better than these,” writes Hayut.

“Hope is the belief that together we can change things for the better,” she continues, citing the late Chief rabbi of the UK, Jonathan Sacks.

“Let us change things for the better. Let us protect our togetherness with all our strength.”