Simchas Torah itself is the ultimate source of our joy, when we celebrate the conclusion, and restart the annual Torah-reading cycle. On this joyous day we dance with the Torah, and it is customary for every Jewish men in Shul to take part in the celebration by receiving an aliyah. Even children receive an aliyah. This is the final aliyah of the Torah, and straight away we begin with a new cycle of the beginning of Bereshis.
Simchas Torah, October 7th, 2023,
When the world changed, and in response, we changed to.
There is a difference in before and after. We all feel that heavy, invisible line drawn on October 7th. It was a morning when the ground beneath us shook, and the sky above us burned. A day meant for the ultimate joy of Simchas Torah, when in kibbutzim they were preparing to hold the Torah close, and beautiful souls at the Nova Festival wanted nothing more than to celebrate life. It became the scene of the most horrific cruelty since the Holocaust. Nearly every single one of us was heartbroken; so many lost a mother, a father, brothers or sisters, grandparents, children and babies. The unimaginable happened.
Deep down inside, it has left a permanent scar on our souls. The very mention of Simchas Torah now triggers an ache that time cannot completely heal. We carry this profound aching weight of names like Yehuda Berger, and all the holy souls brutally taken from us.
Yehuda Berger
"This is life changing" Rabbi Manis Friedman says. But wat was so amazing about the singing of Yehuda, just an hour before he was murdered at the Nova Music Festival.
It was not the song itself, it was the words and where they were coming from. Yehuda was not a obsevant Jew with a Orthodox Chassidic upbringing, of years and hours and hours of studying Torah, the kabbalah and Chassidus of the Torah. He wasn't even wearing a yarmulke or tzitzits.
If you want to know what the ultimate essence of what a Jew is - a Chelek Elokah Mimaal Mamash- you only have to look at the video of Yehuda singing while driving to the festival.
"My God, the soul which You have given within me is pure. You created it, You formed it, You breathed it into me, You preserve it within me. You will eventually take it from me, and restore it in me in the time to come."
"So long as the soul is within me, I offer thanks to You, HaShem my G-d and G-d of my fathers, Master of all works, G-d of all souls. Blessed are You, Who restores souls to dead bodies."
"So long as the soul is within me," For another hour...
On the morning of Simchas Torah October 7th, 2023 the joyous dancing stopped. How can we dance again?
Simchas Torah is feeling the joy and dancing with the Torah, the Hakafos that starts on Shemini Atzeres and continues on Simchas Torah.
The Rebbe taught that we do not need to find an explanation for our suffering. There is no justification, no rational, and no comfort in trying to explain the loss of innocent lives. Instead, we are allowed to leave it as a mystery. We are allowed to cry, to mourn, and to demand of HaShem: How much longer?
But the Rebbe also reminded us of the truth about what Yehuda was singing: fire and steel can harm the physical body, but they can never touch the soul. Yehuda, and every single beautiful person we lost that day, died simply because they were a part of the Jewish people. In our tradition, that makes their souls holier than we can imagine. Their light was not extinguished; it was elevated to the highest level.
Because our souls are within our bodies, their absence is a physical pain we all carry. But Yehuda's smile and eternal song are also an everlasting strength.
Therefore, our survival cannot be passive. We have to move forward, and today we must choose a fierce and defiant resilience. The Rebbe’s lifelong response to destruction was always immediate, radical construction. When asked how to handle unhealed wounds, he didn't tell his people to wallow in tears, he told them: “I will teach you to sing.”
Simchas Torah is the day we finish reading the Torah and immediately begin again from the very start. It is a holiday built on continuity, reminding us that even when things come to an abrupt and painful end, the Jewish people always persevere, and keep going. The joy that Simchas Torah gives us is not a shallow happiness; it is deep and unbreakable joy, and of unity.
We dream of better days, and we know that they will come. We are praying for that one final, ultimate dance; a dance that will never end, where we will move together as one single heart, higher and higher.
The dance will return. The joy will be reclaimed. Day by day, hand in hand, we will step into tomorrow together. For them, and for us.
Because so many were stolen from us, those of us who remain must live more intentionally. We must double our acts of kindness, strengthen our unity, and live proudly. We build a resilient future out of a thousand small "todays" where we refuse to let fear win.
One More Dance expresses the yearning and davening to Hashem: we want to dance again, to continue the dance that was brutally stopped, and this time it will be forever: The dance of Geulah.