Jewish Holidays

We need to seek a middle path between the usual joy of Simchat Torah and the mourning necessitated by the disaster of Simchat Torah 5784 on October 7.

This was the year an entire nation learned to cry – unashamedly and without restraint.

It’s strained, if not seemingly impossible, to embody joy right now. The divine strands of joy around us are so dim as to be nearly invisible.

It is precisely at the one-year anniversary of Hamas's massacre that the holiday of Simchat Torah comes along, with its unique message about the centrality of unity.

Will Jews dance this year on Simchat Torah? To answer this question, the Magazine interviewed several people in diverse situations; their responses varied.

How can we bring joy into our Sukkot observance this year?

The farmers who grow the Four Species that symbolize the holiday of Sukkot.

Until his 70th birthday, Moriah had never been preoccupied with the passing of time or his own mortality. But as he entered his eighth decade, the Book of Ecclesiastes took on new meaning for him. 

In Kfar Aza and Metulla, Be’eri and Kiryat Shmona, dozens of sukkot are standing since last year, as their owners were killed, kidnapped, or forced to flee, unable to take them down.  

When we take hold of the Four Species, we remember that we are one inseparable nation, despite our disagreements and the differences in our lifestyles.