Fallout from 2023 Hamas attack lingers as Jews worldwide observe a holiday meant for joy

NEW YORK — Customarily, Simchat Torah is one of the most joyous days of the Jewish calendar, highlighted by exuberant dancing around a Torah. Jewish leaders say the joy will return during this week's celebrations, even as Jews recall that last year's Simchat Torah overlapped with Oct. 7, the day some 1,200 people were killed and 250 kidnapped in the Hamas attack on Israel.

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of Union for Reform Judaism, reflected on the inevitability that the celebrations Wednesday and Thursday would include “an overlay of pain and loss and mourning.”

“Do we dance again? Has enough time passed?" asked Jacobs, whose organization represents more than 800 Reform synagogues in North America.

"I’m of a mind that we must dance," he said. “There’s something defiant about dancing with the Torahs and not conceding Jewish life to those who hate us ... Jewish life cannot be put on pause.”

Simchat Torah marks the conclusion of the annual cycle of public Torah readings, and the start of a new one. The highlight is the hakafot, during which participants march and dance around a Torah scroll.

“This holiday is characterized by utterly unbridled joy,” says the Hasidic organization Chabad-Lubavitch.

“There are times for mourning and times for celebration and joy, and this is one of those times of joy,” said Rabbi Motti Seligson, a Chabad spokesman. “That's the way we celebrate the lives that are lost. It's the way we lean into who we are. We don't let others define who we are."

Reflections of a rabbi whose family was shattered by violence

Among those sounding the call for joy was Rabbi Leo Dee, an educator living in the Israeli settlement of Efrat in the West Bank. His wife and two of his daughters were killed during Passover in April 2023 in an attack by Palestinian militants.

Writing in The Jewish Chronicle, a London-based newspaper, Dee said rabbis worldwide were wondering how to celebrate Simchat Torah this year.

“On the one hand it is a festival, a day when it is forbidden to give eulogies and to mourn,” Dee wrote. "On the other hand, it is the anniversary of the most tragic attack against humanity since the Holocaust. Can we dance again? Can we celebrate again? How should we respect the victims?

His answer: “Let’s make this Simchat Torah a day of true joy, a day of supporting Israel in the most tangible way possible, by promoting immigration to the most incredible country with the most impressive people and the brightest future.”

In the U.S., some Jews commented on the element of sadness that will accompany some of the celebrations.

“The singing and dancing will never ever be the same as prior to October 7th, 2023. It will be tinged with a bit of sad reflection and daunting memory," wrote Chaim Botwinick, a Florida-based executive coach and educational consultant, in a blog post contributed to The Times of Israel.

“But the one lesson that remains in my heart and soul forever is that we must never ever give up hope," he added. "We must continue to dance — even as we cry.”

Should the children shout for joy as the grown-ups weep?

Similar sentiments were expressed by Rabbi Avi Killip, executive vice president at the Hadar Institute, a Jewish education center in New York.

“There will be shouts of joy from our children as they dance and celebrate the sweetness of Torah, and there will be cries of sorrow from the elders who saw something that cannot ever be forgotten,” Killip wrote in an opinion piece for eJewish Philanthropy. “But of course it won’t be that simple.”

“This first year, we can and probably should let our weeping overtake the sounds of the joy of the children. That is appropriate. This year we need to allow the tears to flow,” she wrote. “In future years there will be more and more children who weren’t there, who didn’t see, and who I pray will someday bring an unbridled joy back to this holiday of Simchat Torah.”

Judith Siegal, senior rabbi at Temple Judea in Coral Gables, Florida, said holiday observances at her Reform synagogue will include an evening of Torah study for adults and a “We will dance again” party for young children.

A key theme, she said, will be “the continuity of life in difficult times.”

“It’s a super joyous moment, and also a super painful moment,” she said. “As Jews we’ve always had this combination of happy and sad. That’s part of our history.”

The joyful aspect was highlighted by Rabbi Yisroel Rosenfeld of the Lubavitch Center of Pittsburgh.

“When we are happy, we can accomplish so much more in our relationship with people and in our relationship with God overall,” he said.

Rabbi Moshe Hauer, executive vice president of the Orthodox Union, said the commemorations in Orthodox synagogues affiliated with the union would be "intimately Jewish. They will be just for us."

"We will celebrate in a manner that will connect us deeply to the events and challenges of this past year, and to specifically celebrate the gift of Torah," he said via email. "Carrying our children on our shoulders and Torah scrolls in our arms, we will sing and dance in joyous celebration of the values that define us, reinforcing our national mission to do good, to be good, to study and live by God’s word, and to bring light to the world.”