It was during Simchat Torah last year that Hamas brutally invaded Israel, murdering some 1,200 people (including about 800 civilians, 346 soldiers, and 66 police officers) and taking 251 hostages into the Gaza Strip. As we observed their yahrzeit and the anniversary of that horrific pogrom on the Jewish calendar on Thursday, Hamas was still holding 101 hostages, alive and dead, including four Israelis – two soldiers and two civilians – it held previously.
Rabbi Doron Perez, whose heroic son Capt. Daniel Perez, 22, was killed and abducted by Hamas terrorists after saving many lives at Nahal Oz on October 7, 2023; posted a video ahead of the holiday titled “How do we dance on Simchat Torah after October 7?”
“We find ourselves in the challenging position of celebrating Simchat Torah, a joyous Jewish holiday, on a day marked by both national and personal tragedy,” Perez says in the video. “How do we dance on the most difficult and challenging and dark day in Jewish history since the Shoah [Holocaust]?” Quoting King Solomon’s words, “A time to mourn and a time to dance (Ecclesiastes 3:4),” he answers as follows: “It’s not different periods in life; it’s that they can both happen at the same time. And they do.”
The duality of mourning and joy coexisting reminds us of the importance of honoring both the pain and the celebration, as we find strength and meaning in this complex emotional experience, Perez suggests. That’s why the Jewish people could “dance with tears of happiness” while holding the Torah and celebrating Simchat Torah this year while remembering those who are no longer with us. “They will be with us when we are in pain, and they’ll be with us when we are dancing,” he says, adding: “Jewish history did not begin and end on the seventh of October without pain.”
It’s a remarkable, quintessentially Jewish, and very Israeli way of viewing both Simchat Torah and life itself. The combination of pain and joy is experienced at birth and from birth to burial. Here in Israel, we make the painful transition from mourning on Yom Hazikaron (Remembrance Day for the Fallen) to celebrating on Yom Ha’atzmaut (Independence Day).
Just as Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, can never be observed without remembering those who fell in the Yom Kippur War in 1973, so will we never be able to celebrate Simchat Torah again without remembering those who sacrificed their lives 50 years later.
But as Michal Uziyahu, head of the Eshkol Community Center who is due to be the new head of the Eshkol Regional Council, says: “We need to ensure that October 7 won’t be something that defines us. It will always stay part of our lives, and we will never be what we were before October 7. But we choose to be better and stronger, and we need to get used to this new us. We must work on our resilience through doing and creating a new future reality. It’s all about rolling up our sleeves, going back to work, and choosing life.”
Israeli director Yariv Mozer produced an epic documentary on the horror and heroism at the Supernova Music Festival near Kibbutz Re’im on October 7, where at least 360 people were murdered, titled We Will Dance Again. Toward the end of the film, a survivor poignantly remembers his murdered friends, saying: “I’m hoping that wherever they are, they’re partying like crazy. And one day, we will, too.”
On Simchat Torah, Jews throughout Israel and the Diaspora returned to synagogues to sing and dance with the Torah and pray for our soldiers and hostages. Next week Israelis go back to work “after the holidays,” as the Hebrew expression goes, referring to a return to a routine – as much as we can.
A year after the worst terrorist attack in Israel’s history, we are in the midst of the worst war in Israel’s history with no end in sight. As fighting rages on against Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and our enemies elsewhere, and the tension between Israel and Iran peaks, we pray that our leaders and our military will find a way to lead us out of the darkness to the light – and to a brighter future for us all.