Dear TBZ Community:
There is a well-known song by Noami Shemer, leading Israeli musician and composer, called החגיגה נגמרת (“The Celebration Is Over”). The words “U’lehatchil m’bereshit” (And to start – from the beginning) are repeated in every stanza of the song and the refrain goes like this:
לקום מחר בבוקר עם שיר חדש בלב
לשיר אותו בכח, לשיר אותו בכאב
לשמוע חלילים ברוח החופשית
ולהתחיל מבראשית
To wake up tomorrow morning
With a new song in our hearts
To sing it with strength,
To sing it with pain.
To hear the flutes in the free breeze
And to start – from the beginning.
You can listen to Naomi Shemer singing the song with other amazing Israeli musicians here and read the full translation of the words in English here.
That’s what we do every year: we start all over, from the beginning. On Thursday and Friday as we celebrate Simchat Torah, we will, almost without pause, finish reading the Torah and then begin again. And then on Shabbat we begin the cycle all over, from the beginning, from Parshat Bereshit (the first Torah portion in Genesis), once more. The party, the celebration, is actually never over. Perhaps that is one of the most amazing things our tradition offers us: again and again the possibility to start, from the beginning.
But this year the start feels a bit different and the celebration of Simchat Torah doesn’t feel as party-like, as joyful as we would hope. We are still immersed in the pain of this war that started a year ago on Simchat Torah. We are still mourning, still waiting for the 101 hostages to return home, and the celebration itself is a day of mourning for so many. No new beginning feels possible when the end to such devastation and pain doesn’t seem to be in sight. So how do we celebrate Simchat Torah this year? And how do we start from Bereshit?
When Dr. Melila Helner-Eshed visited TBZ at the beginning of the month of Elul, she shared how without Torah, she could not have kept going this past year. Quoting Psalm 119:92:
לוּלֵי תוֹרָתְךָ שַׁעֲשֻׁעָי אָז אָבַדְתִּי בְענְיִי
Were not Your teaching (Your Torah) my delight
I would have perished in my affliction.
Without finding sweetness in Torah, without immersing in Torah, I would not be able to find my ways through brokenness.
This framing is helping me start from bereshit, from the beginning. Reminding me that the study of Torah is one that guides me in the ongoing journey. Torah not just as a book that I read, but as teachings that I embrace and that embrace me.
We learn from a teaching attributed to the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidism, the following:
There will be times when something will come your way
And you will be uncertain whether or not to pursue it
If you have studied Torah that day, however,
You will be able to determine your course of action from your learning
For this to occur,
You must sustain your connection to God.
Then, God will enable you to understand the connection
Between your studies and your life.
(Tzava’at HaRivash #31, translation from God in All Moments,
by Rabbis Or Rose & Ebn Leader, page 97.)
The Baal Shem Tov says two things here. First he says that the practice of engaging with Torah will guide your decisions in life, and that in moments of uncertainty you will find, through the practice of learning Torah, the answers, guidance, and help you are seeking. Then he adds one more important thing to this teaching: that the practice of engaging with Torah must be guided by sustaining a relationship with the Source of Life. The practice of being in relationship with God and in the study of Torah combined is what can guide us through our daily life.
Torah is not a book, nor a scroll, that we celebrate once a year. Torah is a practice of deepening our relationship, daily, with the Divine presence in our lives so we can make decisions along the way, every day, both the small and the big decisions. The commitment to learning and engaging with our Jewish texts is not just an intellectual one, it is one that calls us to a life of values and action. Torah manifests in our actions in the world.
Perhaps, I would say, it is through our showing up in the world, it is through the ways we act in the world, that Torah is revealed daily and that we can experience God.
Koolulam, a social-musical initiative aimed at strengthening the fabric of society through song, brought 2,000 people together to mark a year from October 7th. They sang, in part:
מתוך החשכה אנחנו מבקשים
לקום מחר בבוקר ולהתחיל מבראשית
From the darkness we ask to rise tomorrow morning and begin again
You can watch the very powerful and meaningful video here.
As we mark one year from the horrific Simchat Torah 5784 (2023), we commit ourselves, through Torah, to rise and begin, once again, as we always do, m’bereshit (from the beginning). We again start the year of Torah reading, we rejoice with Torah, we hope to find in Torah the delight that sustains us so we can dance, so we can, from a place of brokenness, find our ways to new beginnings. And I hope that at TBZ we can offer those instances for learning Torah, for engaging with Torah in the many possible ways.
May God bring blessing and comfort to all of us and our loved ones. May we find strength, courage, and patience, and open our hearts with generosity. May all those who are ill find healing.
May the hostages soon be returned to their families and friends; may peace prevail and may the leaders of the world know to prioritize life. May those who are working for peace be granted strength and courage to continue their sacred work, and may we soon see peace and dignity for all.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rav Claudia