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As the nation settles into for a customary Christmas holiday across languorous days of coast and scorching heat set to the background of Test cricket and insect sounds, this year the country’s summer mood feels, sadly, like no other.

It would be a dramatic oversimplification to describe the national temperament after the antisemitic violent assault on Jewish Australians during the beachside Hanukah celebrations as one of simple ennui.

Throughout the country, but especially than in Sydney – the most iconically beautiful of Australian cities – a tone of immediate shock, sorrow and horror is shifting to anger and bitter polarization.

Those who had previously missed the frequently expressed fears of the Jewish community are now acutely aware. Similarly, they are sensitive to balancing the need for a much more immediate, vigorous government and institutional fight against antisemitism with the freedom to peacefully protest against mass atrocities.

If ever there was a time for a countrywide dialogue, it is now, when our faith in mankind is so deeply diminished. This is especially so for those of us fortunate enough never to have endured the animosity and fear of religious and ethnic persecution on this continent or elsewhere.

And yet the social media feeds keep spewing at us the trite hot takes of those with blistering, polarizing views but no sense at all of that profound fragility.

This is a period when I lament not having a greater spiritual belief. I mourn, because believing in people – in our capacity for kindness – has let us down so acutely. Something else, something higher, is required.

And yet from the horror of Bondi we have witnessed such extreme instances of human decency. The courageous acts of ordinary people. The bravery of those present. First responders – law enforcement and medical staff, those who charged into the gunfire to help others, some recognised but for the most part anonymous and unheralded.

When the barrier cordon still fluttered in the wind all about Bondi, the imperative of social, faith-based and ethnic unity was admirably championed by faith leaders. It was a message of compassion and acceptance – of unifying rather than splitting apart in a moment of targeted violence.

Consistent with the meaning of Hanukah (light amid gloom), there was so much appropriate reference of the need for hope.

Unity, hope and compassion was the message of faith.

‘Our shared community spaces may not look exactly as they did again.’

And yet segments of the political landscape reacted so nauseatingly quickly with division, finger-pointing and accusation.

Some elected officials moved straight for the darkness, using tragedy as a cynical chance to challenge Australia’s immigration policies.

Witness the dangerous message of division from longstanding fomenters of societal discord, exploiting the massacre before the crime scene was even cold. Then consider the words of political figures while the probe was still active.

Government has a daunting job to do when it comes to bringing together a nation that is mourning and frightened and looking for the light and, not least, explanations to so many questions.

Like why, when the official terror alert was judged as likely, did such a significant public Hanukah event go ahead with such a grossly inadequate protection? Like how could the accused attackers have six guns in the residence when the domestic intelligence organisation has so openly and consistently alerted of the threat of antisemitic violence?

How quickly we were treated to that tired argument (or versions of it) that it’s individuals not guns that kill. Of course, each point are true. It’s feasible to at the same time seek new ways to prevent violent bigotry and keep firearms away from its potential actors.

In this metropolis of profound beauty, of clear azure skies above sea and shore, the water and the beaches – our shared community spaces – may not seem entirely familiar again to the multitude who’ve observed that iconic Bondi seems so incongruous with last weekend’s horrific violence.

We long right now for comprehension and significance, for loved ones, and perhaps for the solace of beauty in culture or nature.

This weekend many Australians are calling off Christmas party plans. Reflective solitude will feel more in order.

But this is perhaps somewhat against instinct. For in these days of anxiety, outrage, melancholy, confusion and grief we require each other now more than ever.

The reassurance of community – the binding force of the unity in the very word – is what we probably need most.

But tragically, all of the indicators are that cohesion in public life and the community will be hard to find this extended, draining summer.