Shmini Atzeret/Simchat Torah 5786
Torah - The Gift of Clarity
Leora Estersohn
Director of Youth &
Family Programming
We are heading into the holiday of Simchas Torah, a time when we celebrate the most precious gift our nation has ever received. The Torah.
Two years ago, on that day, I temporarily morphed into an ostrich. I kept hearing whisperings of things that sounded like they couldn’t, shouldn’t be true, and so I decided that I was not going to find out what happened until after the holiday; I was scared. Well as soon as we made havdala, the short service separating the holy from the mundane, I powered up my computer.
The news didn’t come trickling in; it came crashing like a tidal wave; a tsunami like I had never known. And for the past two years we haven’t been the same. I couldn’t seem to find the “havdala” the separation I craved. There was Hamas on one side, but our people, our beautiful brothers, sisters and children weren’t safely on the other side- they were with the terrorists of Hamas. All I wanted was a “havdala.” But I wasn’t finding it. Last night I went to sleep with my alarm set for 2 am. Night, day, the separation was missing; I just wanted them home. I wanted to see it with my own eyes, to know that there could finally be some measure of havdala, knowing that it would be over.
The Torah teaches us that the value of human life is tremendous. A community is obligated to sell their Sefer Torah, our holiest possession, if that’s what it will take to ransom and save one Jewish life. Why? We are are taught that a Jew is compared to a Torah scroll. With today’s miracle, our beautiful, holy people coming home, I can’t help but think that our shuls, our synagogues will have more sifrei torah, more torah scrolls than ever to dance with this simchas torah. We will be holding in our hearts the living scrolls that were returned to us just this morning. And if I am honest with myself, we have been holding them in our hearts all along; proving that this havdala, this separation between good and evil that I have been craving has been here all along. This separation has been clear in the way we have chosen to unite and care and pray and love. This separation has been clear in the way our hostages and their families have incredibly used their pain as a catalyst for growth in the relationships with G-d and Torah observance.
So here I am, grateful, so grateful, for the gift we received today and the gift of the Torah we will be celebrating tomorrow night and Wednesday; the Torah that teaches that we can always grasp on to what’s good and right in a world that can make things seem so very mixed up. Wishing you all a beautiful chag and simchas Torah and the gift of clarity that Torah brings!
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