Monday, Tishrei 5, 5785 / October 7, 2024
Today, October 7th, is exactly a year, on the secular calendar, since the massacre in Isarel in which over one thousand men women and children, were murdered with the greatest form of violence and brutality. Many have been maimed and wounded. In addition, many were taken captive, of which over one hundred are still in captivity. May G-d have mercy upon them and have them released immediately.
Who would have believed that one year later they would still be in captivity under the harshest of conditions by Hamas beasts…
October sixth last year in Israel was on the holiday of Shmini Atzeret, the last day of the Sukkot holiday. It started out as the holiday of rejoicing… Yet, that day of rejoicing was turned into a day of mourning… It felt like we had two days of Tisha B’Av, which is the saddest day in the year, the day when the Holy Temples were destroyed. That holiday of Shmini Atzeret, when we should be rejoicing with the Torah, was transformed into a day of grief and mourning.
The mind is blank… There is so much to say… Yet, there are very few words with which to say them. There are no words to express the grief we all feel for the hostages, their families, the wounded and those who were murdered. The questions are many… and there are no answers.
Shmini Atzeret and Simchat Torah are of the happiest days in the Hebrew calendar. Yet, on Shmini Atzeter we recite the solemn Yizkor prayer in which we remember our loved ones who are deceased and no longer with us. If it was a mystery, why on that happy day do we remember our loved ones who are gone? Today, we understand that for us, happiness and sadness sometimes are blended together…
Rosh Hashana we celebrated the creation of the Universe and the creation of Adam and Eve. The Torah tells us that when G-d created the world, light and darkness served together. There were no boundaries between light and darkness and they both were mixed together… However, G-d wanted them to serve separately, and G-d separated between light and darkness. He called light DAY and darkness NIGHT.
Last year Shmini Atzeret was a day when light and darkness were intertwined… The Hamas forces of darkness attacked the Jewish forces of light… From the darkness of the tunnels came the murderous barbaric Hamas terrorists to assault the forces of light as Israelis were celebrating the festival of Sukkot.
We know that G-d created the world in a way, as our sages say, “A small amount of light pushes away much darkness.” Thank G-d, the IDF was able in the past few months to get rid of much of the darkness by eliminating many of the leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah. May they wipe all of them from the face of the earth. May G-d watch & protect the IDF. May the light at the end of the tunnels become closer… May the light of freedom shine bright and lead the way for our hostages to be freed very soon.
May the following words of the Haggadah (recited on Passover), “May they go from slavery to freedom; from grief to joyousness; from mourning to festivity; from darkness to light; from bondage to redemption.” Be fulfilled immediately. AMEN.
HAVE A VERY GOOD, HAPPY, HEALTHY AND SUCCESSFUL DAY & SHANA TOVA