Tomorrow, we will commemorate the first yahrzeit of over 1,200 Israelis murdered on October 7, 2023. It will be the holiday of Shemini Atzeret, which, in Israel, is combined with Simchat Torah.
We are all very familiar with the pain of the past year. Everyone knows someone (or knows someone who knows someone) who has been directly impacted by October 7. This Simchat Torah will be hard, difficult, impossible, and complex. People will respond differently to the day. Some will want to celebrate more, and some, understandably, will want to celebrate less. Someone commented on how acutely this year’s religious celebration of the day is coming face to face with current events.
I believe we can – and will – celebrate while mourning. This year, we will live the expression we read this past Shabbat in Kohelet (3:1,4): “There is a time for everything and every experience under the heavens…a time to mourn and a time to dance.”
As raw as this year’s pain is, we can look to Jewish history for how one can still rejoice through the pain.
On Simchat Torah 1973, Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook insisted that his yeshiva dance through the streets to share the joy of the holiday. “We will teach the people to rejoice!” he declared. As they danced outside, they were joined by others, inspired to celebrate even during wartime. When they reached King George Street, a passerby began to shout at them, “How dare you dance? The whole country is fighting for its life in this war, and you dance? Have you no shame?!”
Rav Tzvi Yehudah stopped and turned to him. “Why are you upset? Look at this Jew who is dancing with me” — and he indicated one of those who joined in the dancing. “His four sons are all currently fighting at various fronts. And yet he dances and rejoices in the simchah of the Torah. You should also come and dance with us!”
There is no right or wrong when it comes to emotions and whether or how to celebrate this year. At the same time, Simchat Torah is a day of joy regardless of how one feels.
In his Simchat Torah 1973 sermon, Rabbi Norman Lamm noted:
“Jewish joy is a sign of emunah, faith. It is an expression of our commitment to the existence of God as the Source of all…That is why our happiness is called Simchat Torah, the happiness with the Torah. How happy are we that we are a people of Torah, a people whose base passions are restrained and whose aspirations are refined - by Torah…So, we shall be happy…We shall be happy because our happiness issues…from a recognition that life is complicated and complex and paradoxical. We shall be happy because our joy itself will overcome enmity and adversity, animosity and hostility. We shall try to restrain the sobs and sing out. And if a tear falls, we shall wipe it away and continue to dance. Because when we hold the Torah, we know that no defeat is permanent, and that victory will surely come.”
Rabbi Dr. Yitzchak Mandelbaum, a clinical psychologist, adds that celebrating Simchat Torah has therapeutic value for us as well. “Our ability to return to the ‘same place’ and dance can repair our scars from last Simchat Torah. Successfully transcending the fear will be a step of healthy healing.”
Rabbi Shmuel Slotki, who serves in the IDF Rabbinate and who lost two sons on October 7, agrees. “My sons fought and sacrificed their lives for us to continue living here and maintain our path and traditions. By ensuring that Simchat Torah does not become Tisha B’Av, I fulfill something like their last will and testament.”
Simchat Torah is a testament to the eternity of the Jewish spirit.
Elie Wiesel famously spent Simchat Torah 1965 in Moscow with “The Jews of Silence.” He was inspired by the throng of thousands who defied the Soviet officials to turn out and celebrate a holiday that they knew nothing about. Michael Freund describes a talk he gave at the 92nd Street Y in New York at which Wiesel said, “When the time comes, and I will have to appear before the celestial tribunal, and they will ask, ‘What did you do with your life?’ I will say, ‘I was there in Moscow. I saw them dancing on Simchat Torah.’ And I told the tale of the dancing.”
Freund writes of a separate talk at which Wiesel spoke of another powerful Simchat Torah experience. Even in Auschwitz, Jews did not refrain from marking the holiday. Noting that the Vilna Gaon said that the most difficult mitzvah in the Torah is “ve’samachta be’chagecha” (“you shall rejoice on your festival”), Wiesel said he could never understand this remark until experiencing the Holocaust.
“Those of us who, in the course of our journey to the end of hope, managed to dance on Simchat Torah on the day of the celebration of the law; those Jews who studied Talmud by heart, while carrying stones on their back; those Jews who went on whispering the Sabbath songs while performing hard labor – they taught us how Jews should behave in the face of adversity. For my contemporaries a few generations ago, that commandment was one commandment that was impossible to observe – yet they observed it.”
Simchat Torah is eternal because Jews and Judaism are eternal.
We all have a responsibility to commemorate the yahrzeit of October 7 on Shemini Atzeret. We all will celebrate Simchat Torah - either on Thursday, the yahrzeit itself, or on Friday in the Diaspora. I know we all celebrate Simchat Torah differently. Some love a day on which we celebrate the joy of being Jewish. Others are less enamored by the chaos. As different as this year’s Simchat Torah will be, Simchat Torah is eternal. It celebrates the eternity of Jewish faith, Torah, community, and continuity. We will always, please God, dance again!
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