The First Simchat Torah Since Oct. 7: Leaders Weigh In

On the morning of Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacked Israel as the country was preparing to celebrate Simchat Torah. 

Consequently, Simchat Torah, the most joyful day on the Jewish calendar, is now intrinsically connected to one of the darkest days in modern Jewish history.

This month marks the first Simchat Torah since the tragic events of Oct. 7.

In acknowledgment of this, 1,600 synagogues around the world are participating in the Simchat Torah Project, a global undertaking to provide synagogues with special Torah scroll covers that mark the first yahrzeit of Oct. 7. Each cover is embroidered with the Israeli flag and a phrase from the book of Kohelet (Ecclesiastes), read during Sukkot, that says: “There is a time to mourn, and a time to dance.” 

Additionally, each Torah cover is embroidered with the name of one of the approximately 1,200 victims of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack or the name of an Israeli soldier who has died during Israel’s subsequent war in Gaza.

Sinai Temple is among the local congregations participating in the initiative. According to Sinai Co-Senior Rabbi Erez Sherman, the Conservative synagogue commissioned two Torah covers, each honoring the memory of two individuals affected by Oct. 7 who also happen to be relatives of Sinai Temple congregants.

With its participation in the project, Sinai is honoring the memory of hostage Amiram Cooper, who has been declared dead — his body yet to be returned — and was the uncle of Sinai Temple congregant Rona Passman. The congregation’s other new Torah cover honors the life of Niv Raviv, who was killed on Oct. 7 in Kibbutz Kfar Azza. Raviv was the cousin of Sinai Temple congregant Stacy Sharf. 

On Oct. 24, the Sinai Temple community will take two of its Torahs adorned with these commissioned covers to an event in the streets surrounding its Westwood campus. The program will feature a live band along with an ice cream truck and snacks. Congregants will sing and dance with the Torahs and unroll one of the Torah scrolls, as is customarily done on Simchat Torah. Attendees of the event — held from 5:30-6:30 p.m. — are encouraged to wear blue and white.

Another major initiative is the Simchat Torah Challenge, which encourages weekly Torah study so that the honoring of Oct. 7 victims lasts all year (see David Suissa’s column this week).

Across town from Sinai Temple, Wilshire Boulevard Temple is also marking Simchat Torah with a community gathering that pays tribute to the survivors and victims of Oct. 7, including those killed at the Nova music festival in Israel. The synagogue’s Oct. 25 event — ”Honoring Nova: A Music Festival Simchat Torah Experience” — features a Nova survivor, a live Israeli DJ, a light show, food vendors and artistic displays.

During his recent sermon at Sinai delivered on Kol Nidre, Sherman described the community’s participation in the Simchat Torah Project and the community’s plans for the holiday, which marks the end of one and the beginning of another annual cycle of readings from the Torah.

“We as a community will dance through our tears,” Sherman said, appearing on the bimah with Sinai Co-Senior Rabbi Nicole Guzik. “We will take these Torahs to the streets, and we will dance again!”

“We as a community will dance through our tears,” Sherman said, appearing on the bimah with Sinai Co-Senior Rabbi Nicole Guzik. “We will take these [specially embroidered] Torahs to the streets, and we will dance again!” 

Rabbi Tarlan Rabizadeh, vice president of Jewish engagement at American Jewish University, was among the city’s spiritual leaders wrestling with how to celebrate Simchat Torah this year. In a phone interview, she said the significance of Simchat Torah is that it emphasizes the cyclical nature of life and the importance of celebrating new beginnings even amidst endings. She connected this to the current global challenges, particularly the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and the perpetual hope among Israelis for the release of the remaining hostages. 

“We are a religion that chooses life and [the onus is on us] to choose to dance again with the Torah,” Rabizadeh said, “even though the holiday falls on a day when so many died.”

The female Persian rabbi said dancing with the Torah, as is done on Simchat Torah, can be a powerful symbol of embracing life, while beginning a new Torah cycle is a symbol of continuity. 

At a moment when the Jewish people in Israel are currently in an existential war with neighbors who’d like to see it wiped off the map, a message of Jewish continuity, she said, couldn’t be timelier.

Local writer Eliyahu Abramson said the community, still grappling with the trauma of Oct. 7, ought to double down on the joy of Simchat Torah. 

As a community, Abramson told the Journal in a phone interview, “We draw strength from crises.”

Abramson said the holiday’s themes of renewal resonate with the geopolitical realities in the Middle East. Just as Simchat Torah provides an opportunity to begin the Torah anew, Israel is looking to embark on a new beginning after the trauma of last year’s attack, he said.

Thus, even as we remember what happened last year on Simchat Torah, this year, Simchat Torah obliges the community to keep the celebratory and joyful spark alive. 

In other words, “We will dance again.”