Many thoughts and emotions came up after the terrible tragedy in the South. Mourning, pain...it’s incomprehensible. There is no way to encompass this pain, the loss, the suffering of so many Yidden. If only we knew how to feel even one moment of true empathy, encompassing all of this pain.
Before we speak about the thoughts that came up in the wake of this terrible, bitter tragedy, it’s worthwhile to think about the idea of sharing the pain of Am Yisrael. It is told of one of the gedolei hador zt”l that during the days of the Yom Kippur war he did not sleep in his bed. he would lay down to sleep on the floor. His rebbetzin asked him why, and he said, “I can’t help. I am not going out to war, but I am empathizing with their pain.”
There are those who have the custom of putting a stone under their head on the night of Tisha B’Av as a sign of mourning for the destruction of our Beis Hamikdash. These acts have the ability to arouse the heart, but we are not expected to do these things. What is demanded of us is to help and support in positive ways, and this begins first and foremost by safeguarding our emotional balance and, simultaneously, strengthening our emunah.
Minhag Yisrael – Torah
There are those whose yetzer hara accosts them with terrible thoughts and questions: This happened on such a holy day, the climax of the month of Tishrei, on Simchas Torah, the day of great closeness, of which it is said, “He will kiss me directly from His Mouth,” the day about which Hakadosh Baruch Hu said, “Make Me a small feast, just Me and you.” It is a day when Hashem asks that no non-Jews intrude on the connection between Him and His nation; and it was precisely on this day that all this happened. Perhaps Hakadosh Baruch Hu is not happy with me? Perhaps He was not happy to accept my avodah?
These are thoughts of the yetzer hara. We must not allow such thoughts to enter our minds. We need to strengthen ourselves with the knowledge that every good act of ours is desirable, every mitzvah accomplishes something, every time we lifted our feet even a tiny bit during hakafos brought nachas ruach Above; every tefillah, every song and word of praise, and all the love and desire for the Torah and for Hashem yisbarach – all of these acts are beloved and achieve great and mighty things on High.
Simchas Torah is simply joy in the Torah. We should not try to understand that which is hidden from us.
The Shefa Chaim – the heiligeh Rebbe from Sanz-Klausenberg zy”a, went through the horrors of the Holocaust in Europe. On Rosh Hashanah they davened by heart, without a shofar. Those days were terrible, no matter what the date was; and then Simchas Torah came. What do Jews do on this holy day? They dance for hakafos. The Shefa Chaim would not miss that opportunity. Together with other courageous and inspired Jews, he got hold of a torn page from a Chumash. They put it on a chair and stated dancing around it exuberantly. The singing was quiet, but it was there. The Rebbe was on fire with enthusiasm, and one of the Nazis realized what was happening.
He came closer, and the other Jews escaped. The Rebbe, however, continued dancing, and the Nazi y”s kicked him. The Rebbi fell to the ground, but still he would not give up. He continued his hakafos, crawling around the chair...
There is much to learn from this story. While the Rebbe was engaged in hakafos, smoke was coming out of the crematorium. Death was everywhere, Jews were suffering unimaginable horrors, the storm of hatred was raging all around. But all this did not prevent him from doing hakafos on Simchas Torah. That is a time to be happy, so we are happy.
The Rebbe did not make cheshbonos. He did not ask, How can we dance at a time when Jews are being murdered? He danced, because what he saw before him was not cheshbonos; it was the need to safeguard the minhagim of Am Yisrael. It could not be that because of the Nazi satan there would be no hakafos on Simchas Torah!
We need to hold on to this message, to do what is expected of us and not to give in to the storms of the war. Now we are already experiencing the “war routine.” Many Jews are not at home. There are guests and hosts; children not going to school; routine is upside down, and this affects everyone differently – due to problems with transportation, financial difficulties brought on by the war, or any other reason. Chalilah that we should think that these difficulties were made to distance us. It is just the opposite – they are there in order to draw us closer to the Creator yisbarach, so that we will daven and place our hopes in Him and do His will and prove that we are cleaving to Him and that we will not forfeit being close to Him.
