Each year, Simchat Torah is welcomed by Jews across the world as an invigorating holiday when we complete, and immediately begin again, the annual public Torah reading cycle. In 2023, the usually upbeat holiday was stained as Hamas militants attacked Israelis at the Nova music festival and kibbutzim in the southern region of the country on Oct. 7.
Now, as the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks approaches with the 2024 celebration of Simchat Torah following close behind, Jews are wondering how they should reconcile the celebration of an essential holiday with the harrowing memories that were forged during its observance just a year ago.
Rabbi Eric Yanoff of Adath Israel in Merion Station said that the very nature of the holiday lends itself to the feelings that Jews everywhere are experiencing.
“We are going to follow the lead of our Israeli brothers and sisters, and the way that we are doing that is taking a cue from the survivor of the Supernova festival who had tattooed on her, ‘We shall dance again,’” he said. “We are turning Simchat Torah into an act of resilience and even defiance — that is going to be our theme. We are acknowledging it head on and not shying away with the mindset that we have a lot of work to do to reach a full-throated Simchat Torah.”
Michael Balaban, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, said he thinks no amount of celebration will make this year’s Simchat Torah complete.
“Simchat Torah is supposed to mark the beginning of a new cycle, but if you haven’t found a conclusion to the old, how do you parade and dance to welcome in the new?” he asked.
At Beiteinu, a synagogue founded by longtime area Rabbi Howard Cove that conducts its work virtually, the focus of Simchat Torah will be largely on recognizing the weight of the day without sacrificing what makes the holiday special. Congregant David Folkman said he is excited to share a solemn moment with his community.
“We are going ahead with the celebration as we always do, and we are going to dance with the Torah like we always do, but we are going to have [Oct. 7] on our minds for the rest of our lives,” he said. “This will bring people together, and even those with divergent political opinions can come together in our love for and support of Israel.”
Rabbi Sam Yolen of Kesher Israel Congregation in West Chester said that, as far as politics go, the last year has shown us that Jews need to look out for each other before they look out for their political peers.
“Jewish people were in limbo and they didn’t really know if there was going to be room for them to belong in liberal progressive spaces, and I think now we do know that Jews need to stick together, and that it’s important for our community to invest in the spaces that take care of our own,” he said.
Folkman agreed that, right now, American Jews should put aside political differences and focus on what unites them. He said that he has plenty of friends on the other side of the political spectrum, and right now they opt to share messages of support in lieu of political debates that usually divide people. The celebration of Simchat Torah is a chance to do just that.
“Our congregation is determined to celebrate Simchat Torah in as much of a joyful way as we can,” Folkman said.
Yanoff said that Jews “owe it” to each other to sit with the complex emotions that they feel surrounding the holiday and the anniversary of the attacks.
“We need to hold all the emotions of this particular moment, and that’s what [our services] intend to provide. The job of the Jewish community right now is to allow us to sit with all of these different emotions,” he said. “The calendar and world events both prescribe certain emotions right now and we need to be receptive and understanding and open to those emotions.”
Balaban said that, right now, Jews need a pick-me-up, and that Simchat Torah could be just that.
“All over the world, the Jewish people have been going through agony, anguish and trauma over the last several years,” he said. “We need to bring [more] ‘wow,’ more engagement and more excitement to Jewish life — for ourselves and the next generation.”