One year ago on the Jewish calendar — on the Holy and Joyous day of Simchat Torah - which is also the last day of the month long marathon of Holidays — the unthinkable happened.
It was deliberately orchestrated for this day as on the Jewish Holiday many are on leave from the army and the country in general is in a state of celebration.
In Israel, religious or not, the Festivals are felt by the entire society. Businesses are closed and festivities permeate the very fabric of society.
Instantly, the most joyous day became a day full of tears —for us all, time froze and our worlds stopped.
In many ways life hasn’t resumed as “normal”. We are incomplete so long as the hostages aren’t home and incomplete because so many families are incomplete.
Yet our enemies can’t and won’t define us. In the words of the former Chief Rabbi of the UK, Jonathan Sacks, “ Simchat Torah was born when the Jews had lost everything else but they never lost their capacity to rejoice. A people whose capacity for joy cannot be destroyed is itself indestructible”!
Yes!! We are an eternal nation it’s precisely because despite our adversity we continue to celebrate our core essence — time and time again and this Simchat Torah (Thursday night) we’ll do it once again.
In the merit and memory of those who are no longer with us it would be “the” year to dance on their behalf… check the info at your Synagogue or check out the program at Chabad — regardless of where —for the Nation of Israel— this is the way to ensure that Am Yisrael is CHAI!!
Chag Sameach & an early Shabbat Shalom,