Between the Sukkah & the Mama”d

October 7^th 2024 showed up right between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, as if emphasizing this dialog we’re having with the world around us, on all its levels, through the two calendars, and in Israel it was not to be missed with its ceremonies, films, interviews, memories, stories, remembrance and a night show of sirens and “booms”.

And yet.

October 7^th is not my day. Not my date. Yes, I know: “the 7^th of the 10^th” became such a concept that even on the 17th of Tammuz someone said, “7 plus 10 equals 17! That’s the day the walls were breached!”…

Maybe. But for me, this war started on Shmini Atzeret, celebrated in Israel with Simchat Torah, the 8^th day of “assembly”, the day the world stopped.

And somewhere there, between the 7^th and the 8^th – that’s the whole story.

The number 7 describes things within nature. Sheva (7) is related to the word “save’a” – satiated, full, exact, not too much and not too little. There are seven days of the week; seven blessings for the bride and groom; seven days of mourning; seven weeks between Passover and Shavuot; seven years to Shmita. Seven describes the circles of life that we move through and within “to enjoy them to the fullest”. This is our physical, “normal”, everyday existence, here and now, in this world.

But eight. Eight is a different story.

The first 8^th day is the first day we were able to actively participate in this world, after the seven days of creation. This is the day of brit-mila, circumcision, the day of the covenant between us and G-d. The Torah portion Shmini tells about the inauguration of the Tabernacle, the point where heaven and earth connect. The Hebrew root for the number eight, shmone, is shared with fat (shamen) and oil (shemen), expressing that which fills too much, overflowing and spilling over. Most of all, “eight” leaves the known place of the circles of life, and goes to the unknown, like the number eight that looks like an infinity sign, going on and on and on…

The holiday of Sukkot, the holiday of all nations, is seven days long. Those seven days – wonderful and beloved in their own way – describe the orderly world and its rules. In them we have actual things to touch and hold, a sukkah and the four species. But you, says the Holy One to us, please pause, atzor, stay with me for one more day; you don’t have to bring anything, there are no items and symbols; just come as you are; it’s a day for just us; a day of going above and beyond.

While we very much live in this physical world, here and now, we’re asked to remember that that’s not all there is, and there is a part we don’t know and can’t get. Maybe we forgot. Maybe we started thinking – knowing! – that 100% of The Justice, Knowledge, Truth – all in caps, is clearly, decisively, exclusively, even angrily only with “us”, whoever we are, whatever “side” we’re on. And suddenly, it turned out that we too, all of us, yes, even me and you too – we didn’t and we don’t really “know”, not everything… And here we are, invited to live, not with either-or, but with both: to keep doing and acting and being in this world as if everything depends on us, and simultaneously, also to hold an awareness that there is more, a part that’s Unknown.

This seeming duality is also necessary when it comes to this year’s question: to celebrate Simchat Torah this year or to not celebrate? There are those who say, we can never dance again, and those who say, keep up the tradition, and my answer is – yes, to both. In the words of Rabbi Yehoshua to those who wanted to take upon themselves stringent mourning practices following the Temple’s destruction: “it’s impossible not to mourn. But to mourn too much, is also impossible” (Bava Batra 60:b). We should not cancel the holiday but to be oblivious to everything that happened last year and since, aside from being insensitive, might mean learning nothing, and that too, holds its dangers.

Recently, I came across a collection of articles called “Ha-Ma’ayan – expanded Issue on the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War” published Tishrei 5783 / 2023, shortly before this war. Among the authors, Rav Dr. (reservist Lt. Col.) Mordechai Halperin who was a young rabbi at the Golan Yeshiva, just established in Moshav Ramat Magshimim. The rabbi tells about the supersonic “booms” in the middle of Yom Kippur morning prayer, the airplanes overhead, and the heavy bombing when hundreds of shells rained on the moshav all through that afternoon.

The rabbi himself was recruited Sat night and transferred to Sinai at the head of a rabbinic military force designated for the removal and proper burial of bodies from the combat zone. In his essay he describes countless difficult moral, human and halachic dilemmas during the war. One of them is when he’s told – on Shmini Atzeret / Simchat Torah (5733 / 1973) – to go out in order to collect bodies of soldiers in an IDF post that was conquered by Egyptians on Yom Kippur, and then again conquered by the IDF. He opens the paragraph about this horrific experience with the words: “On Simchat Torah, after the completion of the hakafot (dancing around with the Torah)”…..

Fascinating as they are, I will not go into halachik deliberations and description itself here. These first few words ”on Simchat Torah, after the completion of the hakafot” hit me. Simchat Torah was less than two weeks after the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War; we were still in the middle of this war, which comprised of a surprise attack on two fronts at the same time; a war that within three weeks will claim almost twice as many deaths as we have experienced in this whole last year, at a time that the State of Israel had between a third and a half of its current Jewish population. We may wonder – Rabbi, excuse me, with all due respect, what’s with Simchat Torah and the hakafot at such a time?

I decided to write Rav Halperin and asked him: Were there actually hakafot on Simchat Torah 1973? He answered: “There were regular hakafot with an adjustment to the soldiers and officers’ daily schedule. No one thought of forgoing Simchat Torah. On the contrary. The joy was powerful and enormous in the participants’ hearts. So later, we went to the dangerous Suez Canal area without feeling fear and without dread”…

I wonder if maybe history is not that different nowadays from what it always was. What is different is that this time it’s on us, here and now. What would we do?

Rav Chaim Soloveitchik wrote about 80 years ago: “Simchat Torah… the holiday is not called “Simchat Israel” (i.e. the joy of Israel) but Simchat Torah (that is – the joy of the Torah), and it is not (that important) that Israel rejoice in the Torah, but the main thing is that the Torah rejoices in Israel“…

On the other hand, it is told about Rav Yisrael Slanter who seemed sad on one Simchat Torah. When his students asked him, he explained:

“Suppose someone had joy and sorrow from two separate matters, then the joy from the one might reduce they worry and sadness over the other, but if the joy and sorrow are from the same issue, then it’s different. For  example, what if someone has an only child who is wonderful and beloved and his father rejoices in him, but then, this child is terribly sick, then the joy cannot relieve the sadness but rather – the greater is the joy the child brings, the greater will the pain caused by his illness, so it is for us”… Rav Salanter spoke on the Torah, which brings joy but also is suffering. We can likened it to the situation in Israel: the greater the joy and pride in our homeland, the greater the distress and fear over the situation at hand.

Which means to me, especially on this Shmini Atzeret / Simchat Torah, not to choose either or none, but both.

Last year, after Shabbat and chag, I decided to post on facebook, asking my friends overseas to not skip Simchat Torah. Recently, a dear friend sent that post back to me. It read:

“This might sound like a crazy thing to say, considering the news, and I write it with tears in my eyes, but today, outside of Israel, is SIMCHAT TORAH and If you’re able to celebrate safely, however you opt to do so, even if there’s no synagogue nearby and you’re just dancing in your home, plz, plz do so!

You might think, how can you say this, this is no time for celebration!… so, I agree, don’t drink too much; don’t eat too much; let your voice choke when you sing; dance with tears in your eyes; but… don’t let them win this war, don’t let them take away our holiday as well”….

This year, as I’m writing this between the sukkah and the mama”d (home safe room), I realize I may not be able to make it to shul, but wherever I am, I hope to dance. Tears may be running down my face as  sadness and joy, thankfulness and fear, gloom and glory, known and unknown, all blend to one. Especially in Israel, putting Shmini Atzeret and Simchat Torah together means we don’t have to choose. We can embrace it all in our people’s “rain dance”, then ask for a good year, life and blessings as we start once again.

Moa’dim Lesimcha & Chag Same’ach