Last year upon returning from a mission to Israel I penned the words below.
It feels all the more timely now as we prepare to welcome a new Torah into the Westport community dedicated in memory of all the pure souls lost on and since October 7th!
We hope you’ll join in tribute — rsvp here.
——————
He fought like a lion! Ten of his friends weren’t as fortunate as him and they heroically died defending their base on October 7th.
Dolev told us his story as he was clutching a Torah that he saved on that fateful day. Amidst fighting for his life and those of his battalion, he saw a terrorist grab a Torah and run into the bushes to hide with it. Dolev eliminated that terrorist — and here he was holding onto that very Torah.
We were there on a Chabad solidarity mission and we had sponsored replacing the Torah cover that had gotten sullied — it was a small gesture but outsized in the experience — a life altering experience.
You see, the dancing that ensued was some of the most fervent, joyous, existential and uplifting expression of pure soul that I’ve ever experienced. We were dancing with the source of the Jewish nation’s strength, the Torah. We were dancing for our lives. Not that we were threatened rather it was “for our lives”. It was a dance that underscored the entire depth of our existence. It was a dance that encapsulated the enduring nature of Am Yisrael through thick and thin since Abraham and Sarah — we were dancing “for life”.
Dolev stood there clutching the Torah and wouldn’t let it go. The palpable emotion permeated every inch of the room and then the penny dropped. We were dancing the dance that was never danced on Simchat Torah October 7th, 2023 in Israel. Everyone was in bomb shelters, fighting for their lives or no longer able to dance. Yes, the joy of the Torah with the dancing that accompanies it on that most joyous day of the year, was being enacted right there in that very base that so many ” Kedoshim- holy souls” were snuffed out. It was being enacted by Dolev who was standing there elevated and elevating us all.
———-
Skip back to the current — on June 1 we will welcome a new Torah dedicated to all those we lost on and after October 7th. The significance is so powerful, for after all — Torah as the oxygen of the Jewish nation representing “eternal life” which has been bequeathed to the each of us and entrusted to us to cherish, celebrate and ultimately perpetuate!
We hope to see you RSVP here.
With best wishes for a Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Yehuda & Dina Kantor