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By Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz – Rabbi of the Western Wall and Holy Sites
As the eve of Simchat Torah 5785 (2024) approaches, our hearts are heavy. Every year, this day is one of pure joy, with lively dancing with the Torah scrolls and a sense of communal unity. However, last year, this sacred day was desecrated, and this year, a heavy shadow hangs over it.
A year ago, on Simchat Torah 5784 (2023), our world was turned upside down. Instead of songs and joy, we heard cries of pain and sirens. How can we dance this year when 101 of our brothers and sisters are still being held captive in tunnels? How can we sing “Rejoice and be glad in the joy of Torah” when our hearts are still weeping?
In synagogues worldwide, difficult questions are being asked. Is it appropriate to rejoice? Is there not a sense of ignoring the pain of others, of our own pain? On the other hand, does giving up on joy not hand victory to the forces of darkness that sought to destroy our holiday?
In the midst of this storm, the words of King David echo within me, words we sing every year during the hakafot: “The Torah of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul” (Psalms 19:8). This year, this verse takes on a deeper meaning.
Rabbi David Altschuler, a 17th-century biblical commentator, explains these words: “Restoring the soul – it returns the human soul to the body, for without it, the soul would depart from the body due to overwhelming sorrow and grief.” In a world filled with so much sorrow, the aching soul longs to escape and abandon the body. What restores the soul to the body and faith in this complicated, painful world is the Torah’s healing power.
The Torah does not promise a world free of pain or suffering. It does not ignore evil or deny its existence. On the contrary, it acknowledges reality in all its complexity and offers us a moral compass, hope, and meaning, helping us navigate and improve the world.
When we connect to the Torah, we connect to eternity. We connect to the eternal mission of the Jewish people. We are reminded that despite all the hardships, our people continue to exist, learn, create, and bring light to the world. The Torah reminds us of our duty to repair the world under God’s reign and our destiny to be a light unto the nations.
This year, especially this year, our connection to the Torah and the spiritual and moral vision it embodies will restore our souls in the deepest sense. From it, we will draw strength to maintain hope for the release of our brothers and sisters, for the healing of our wounded, for the victory of our soldiers, and for rising from the ashes of our profound mourning to a future of a better world.
So yes, we will dance this year on Simchat Torah. We will dance with tears in our eyes and hope in our hearts. We will dance because we believe that light will conquer darkness, that good will triumph over evil. We will dance because the Torah is the breath of our lives, and it is what will lead us from mourning to comfort, from darkness to light.
“The Torah of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul” – May we merit to feel the Torah’s healing power this year, and may we know days of joy, peace, and comfort.
