Simchat Torah will never be the same. Three years after October 7, this day will always carry a sense of before and after. A day associated with joy and dancing is now also a time to honor those we lost and ensure that their devotion and legacy live on through us.
This message is embedded in the day itself: On Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah, we complete the Torah with the account of Moshe’s death. This raises a question: If Moshe died before completing the Torah, who wrote its final verses?
One answer in Talmud Bava Batra is that Moshe’s disciple Yehoshua completed them. This points to a deeper idea about Torah and human mortality: No single person, not even Moshe, can encompass all of Torah’s truth and wisdom. Rabbi Eliezer expresses a similar idea on his deathbed. Surrounded by his students, he likens himself to a Torah scroll being rolled up, never to be opened again, and laments how much Torah he still wished to learn and how little of his knowledge he had imparted. Yet, his Torah endures through the pages of the Talmud. Torah is larger than any one person’s lifetime, just as the Jewish people’s story is greater than any one generation. While we must strive to fulfill our potential, we are part of a much larger, unfolding story. As Rabbi Tarfon teaches in Pirkei Avot: “It is not your duty to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it.”
On Simchat Torah, we do not only finish the Torah; we immediately begin it anew. Doing so on the very Hebrew date on which we lost so many heroes in the Otef now takes on new significance. Each life lost carries a legacy, a story cut tragically short. We are charged with remembering them and carrying forward their stories, their Torah, and their Zionism.
As Rabbi Sacks taught: “That bond of the generations we call covenant…is what rescues life from tragedy, and death from having the final word.” Simchat Torah is now a day of unfinished stories, but also a celebration of new beginnings and the stories still waiting to unfold. Shabbat Shalom & Chag Sameach -Karen Miller Jackson
Next week we begin a new Torah reading and “Power Parsha” cycle. Please encourage friends and family to join! (if you already receive it, no need to sign up). Here is a link to send friends:
To subscribe to “Power Parsha” a short dvar Torah on the parsha, Zionism, leadership and contemporary issues via whatsapp: https://chat.whatsapp.com/CKLpCygJaBf20sKbNmRV1u
or via email here: https://karenmillerjackson.com/
