I write to thank Shanice J Dacres for her powerful letter titled ‘A curious case of silence’ published in the Jamaica Observer on Tuesday, October 7, 2025. Her moral clarity in these turbulent times is both refreshing and necessary.

This past week the Jewish community celebrated Simchat Torah, concluding and immediately restarting the reading of the Five Books of Moses. We begin again this week with Genesis, which opens with the famous first line: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

The creation story, familiar to those who attended Sunday school or had a religious education, begins with the very first thing God uttered — “Let there be light!”

We can learn a lesson from this story that can illuminate the darkness in which we currently find ourselves. Biblical commentators have asked: Why did God create light on the first day when there was nothing yet to illuminate and no one to see it? Light, by definition, is not an entity in its own right, its sole purpose is to illuminate other objects. The sun itself wasn’t created until the fourth day. Plants, which need light didn’t appear until the third day. Animals came on the fifth day, and humanity on the sixth. So why light first?

The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M Schneerson, offered a profound answer in a public address on Simchat Torah in 1965. He explained that “Let there be light” was not the creation of physical light — that came on the fourth day with the sun and stars. Rather, it was God’s mission statement for all of creation.

Before any company or organisation begins its work it must first articulate its purpose and vision. Similarly, before creating the details of our universe God first defined the mission — light. The purpose of creation itself is to bring light into darkness, to transform obscurity into clarity, concealment into openness, crisis into opportunity, challenge into growth.

This light that God created on the first day — before there was anyone to see it — represents that hope, truth, moral clarity, and purpose, which is embedded within every aspect of the universe, waiting to be discovered and revealed. Our role as human beings is to be ambassadors of light: to find meaning in chaos, to bring illumination to dark places, to transform negativity into positive energy.

Genesis teaches us how to fulfil this mission even in our present darkness. The great medieval
Bible commentator “Rashi” asked a famous question: Why did the Torah begin with the story of creation rather than with the giving of the commandments at Sinai. His answer was almost prophetic. He said that a time would come when the Jewish people would be accused of stealing the Holy Land. God chose to begin His holy book with the creation story because it establishes that as the Creator of heaven and earth He gave the land of Israel to the Jewish people as an eternal heritage. When ownership is challenged we can respond with certainty that this land was decreed to us by the Master of the Universe.

Ms Dacres’ letter radiated truth and clarity — it brought light to a moment of moral confusion. Like her, I too was deeply troubled when voices that once shouted for peace in cities and streets around the world fell silent at the prospect of actual peace. It was profoundly saddening when those who called for humanitarian assistance showed no concern for Israeli hostages. We need more people willing to speak truth when hatred masquerades as activism, willing to be ambassadors of light in dark times.

I commend Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness and the people of Jamaica for refusing to be swept up in the tide of hatred. Jamaica has always been a light unto the nations — a beacon of moral courage in a world where too many are swayed by political expediency. Jamaica has chosen to fulfil the mission of creation itself: to bring light into darkness.

Just as God created light before there was anyone to see it, knowing it would be needed, Jamaica’s light of friendship and solidarity illuminates a path forward. This is what it means to be an ambassador of light — to stand for truth and goodness even when the world seems dark, to find the hidden light within difficult situations and bring it forth for all to see.

The last living hostages have come home, and for that we celebrate. We pray that a lasting peace will come to the land and that the vision of the prophet Isaiah will be fulfilled — an era when “nation will not lift up sword against nation, and they shall not know war anymore”.

The people of Israel will continue to fulfil their mission: to be a light unto the nations, to transform challenge into growth, darkness into illumination. And the nations that stood with us in our darkest hour — those who chose to be ambassadors of light themselves — will be remembered for their courage.

We are grateful beyond words for our friends who remind us that we do not stand alone, and who join us in bringing God’s first creation — light — into every corner of our world.

— Yaakov Raskin is chief rabbi of Jamaica and director of Chabad of Jamaica