JERUSALEM (RNS) — Jews around the globe try a troublesome religious straddle this week: find out how to rejoice the joyous vacation of Simchat Torah on the primary anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas bloodbath.
Whereas Oct. 7 is the day on the Western calendar that Hamas attacked Israel’s Gaza-border communities final yr, the bloodbath of 1,200 Israelis and overseas nationals occurred on the twenty second day of the Hebrew month of Tishrei — the day Israelis and lots of liberal Jews rejoice Simchat Torah. Within the diaspora, many Jews rejoice Simchat Torah a day later.
“Final Simchat Torah noticed the best pogrom because the Holocaust,” mentioned Rabbi Benjy Myers, CEO of the Straus-Amiel Rabbinical Emissary Institute in Jerusalem. “On the one hand, we now have no selection however to recollect and mourn all who have been senselessly murdered on that day. On the identical time, we wish to present we’re a faith of life, and we try this by celebrating. The problem is discovering the steadiness between not going overboard with both celebrating or mourning.”
Simchat Torah, which this yr begins in Israel at sunset on Wednesday (Oct. 23), and on Oct. 24 within the diaspora, marks the top of the liturgical yr in Judaism, when congregations learn the ultimate chapter of the Ebook of Deuteronomy, the fifth and final guide within the Torah, and start the annual cycle once more with the Ebook of Genesis.
Through the seven hakafot, or rounds of celebration, choose congregants carry the Torah scrolls and lead all the opposite members in spirited singing and dancing to rejoice the top and begin of the brand new cycle.
honor this custom whereas memorializing these misplaced since final Simchat Torah, and centering the 101 hostages nonetheless being held by Hamas, has preoccupied rabbis and lay leaders.
Myer’s institute, which oversees the work of 150 {couples} who function instructional emissaries to Jewish communities around the globe, has requested the emissaries to adapt their vacation observances to the particular wants of their particular person communities. If somebody locally misplaced family members within the bloodbath or subsequent struggle, their group can dedicate one of many hakafot to their reminiscence, recite their names out loud in the course of the conventional Yizkor memorial service or keep in mind them in a sermon.
The Rabbinical Council of Tzohar, an Israeli Orthodox rabbinical group, means that communities maintain a silent hakafah, wherein congregants stroll across the ark of the Torah “roughly in silence.” Afterward, “it is strongly recommended to sing uplifting, emotional tunes” in reminiscence of the victims, for the hostages, for the success of the Israeli army and the well-being of these displaced by struggle.
Tzohar additionally recommends limiting the festivities (and alcoholic drinks) round Kiddush, the refreshments and light-weight meal served following prayers, “in an effort to specific the ache that accompanies our pleasure.”
Kehilat Yedidya, a contemporary Orthodox synagogue in Jerusalem, will dedicate the seven hakafot to particular values and objectives: silence (as an announcement that the Jewish persons are left with out phrases); redeeming captives; bravery; acts of kindness and mutual solidarity; pleasure; hope; and peace. Particular songs have been chosen for every hakafah.
For congregants who really feel they can’t take part within the hakafot this yr, the synagogue will maintain a parallel possibility: small dialogue teams the place folks can share their ideas and emotions in a “secure and supported” atmosphere.
Kehilat Nava Tehilla, a music-centered Jewish Renewal group in Jerusalem, will maintain an expanded Yizkor and keep away from the levity and “humorous shticks” typical of a Simchat Torah celebration, mentioned Rabbi Ruth Kagan, the congregation’s religious chief.
The hakafot will likely be accompanied by the kind of dance and motion “that can enable us to really feel the total vary of our emotions. We will likely be transferring via the problem, with out denying it and, hopefully, via the ability of group and prayer, contact locations of hope, power, love and perhaps even pleasure. Yearly we take pleasure with no consideration. It’s Simchat Torah in spite of everything. This yr we is not going to be pushing it however let it unfold by itself,” Kagan mentioned.
An set up that includes a Shabbat desk, with empty chairs representing hostages taken by Hamas, on the Lincoln Memorial, Oct. 27, 2023, in Washington. (RNS picture/Jack Jenkins)
In the US, the Orthodox Union is encouraging its rabbis to rework the strange Simchat Torah Kiddush meal into an occasion marking the completion of a communal studying mission in honor of the Oct. 7 victims. “There are few days in synagogue life that rival Simchat Torah as a day when communities come collectively. We anticipate it to be a really emotional day,” mentioned Rabbi Moshe Hauer, the OU’s govt vice chairman.
Rabbi Michal Morris Kamil, the brand new rabbi of Congregation Beth El-Ner Tamid in Broomall, Pennsylvania, west of Philadelphia, mentioned the bloodbath “created an infinite shift in all that was sure and strong in life’s views. A lot has been misplaced, injured. This previous yr has highlighted how fragile life actually is and the way little management we actually have within the ‘large image’ of existence.”
On the identical time, Kamil famous, the Torah instructions Jews to be completely happy throughout Sukkot and Simchat Torah. “It’s a time to reconcile the commandment of being ‘completely happy’ as a therapeutic measure religiously prescribed to make sure that the flame of ‘hope’ stays alight even when it feels counter intuitive.”
Whereas Kamil has integrated many components of Oct. 7 remembrance, together with a vigil, into her Conservative synagogue’s Excessive Vacation and Sukkot companies, on Simchat Torah, she desires her congregation to additionally embrace the type of pleasure and resilience that has stored the Jewish folks going even in the course of the darkest instances.
“Like our prolonged household in Israel — and for a few of us, our nearest and dearest — we’ll dance once more.”
