Simchat Torah: A Raw Emotional Response

Raw Words of Shock and Horror

I do not know what to say.

I stand before you as rabbi of our shul and I do not know what to say.

Over 500 feared dead

Over 100 feared abducted

Over 1,000 wounded

I do not know what to say.

Ever since the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash our people have suffered. Descriptions of that destruction, both Jewish and Roman, describe how after they massacred our people the streets of Yerushalyim were filled with blood. Filled with enough blood for a child to go swimming in. Filled with the blood of our people.

It did not get much better thereafter. Pogrom after pogrom. The crusades. Tach v’Tat. The Holocaust. Not to mention the many more that never received a formal name. Our people have been thrown out of their homelands. Our people have been murdered in their beds. Our people have been rapped and tortured.

Finally. Finally. We returned to our home. Finally, we returned to Eretz Yisrael.

And even then they DID NOT STOP.

Countries waged war on us and we suffered countless terrorist attacks.

Finally, after the Six Day Way, we thought we were safe. Our borders had increased and Yerushalyim was back in our hands.

And then, on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year, they attacked. Killed more than 2,000 of our brothers and sisters.

And then yesterday, again, they attacked. Those animals ran across the border and slaughtered our brother and sisters. They butchered families in their homes like cattle. They overtook military bases and killed whoever they could find. And they kidnapped soldiers, men, women, children and babies.

I do not know what to say.

We read Kohelet yesterday, there we were told there is a time for everything. There is a time to dance and there is a time to cry. There is a time to laugh and there is a time mourn. But what do we do today? At least on Yom Kippur the nature of the day allows for mourning. But what do we do on Simchat Torah, a day that is by its very nature a day meant for celebration?

I recall a few years back, during one of the many times Gaza was firing rockets at Israel, my grandfather had prepared trips for us around the country. And while many people cancelled their own trips either from fear or in solidarity of the people suffering from the rocket fire, my grandfather insisted we continue our scheduled trips. “No matter what they do, they will NOT break us; they will not ruin our way of life.”

We will follow that model. We will say Hallel but we dare not sing. We will now say Tehillim, mi sheberach for our soldiers and the captives and Avenu Malkenu. We will cry. And then, we will continue with Hakafot. We will sing and we will dance. Because no matter what these animals did to our brothers and sisters, no matter what they wish to do to us, THEY WILL NOT WIN. We will continue our way of life. עם ישראל חי.