O

ne year ago, on Shemini Atzeret/Simchat 
Torah, Israel experienced the single worst 
terrorist attack in our history. The per-
petrators of the “
Al-Aqsa Flood” raped, tortured, 
murdered, mutilated bodies and took hostages back 
to Gaza. They made gleeful video records of their 
actions. Their admirers, ecstatic civilians back home 
in Gaza, some joyful civilians throughout the Arab 
and Muslim world, along with activists at universi-
ties, at the United Nations and elsewhere, celebrated 
these sadistic escapades as resistance, or liberation, 
or justice. The Democratic Socialists of America 
immediately blamed Israel, as did other “progressive” 
organizations. 
On that day, Daniel Schwartz, now aged 54, a for-
mer Detroiter who moved to Israel with his family 
in 2016, said he “became aware of the 
possibility, at least, that my life and those 
most dear to me could face destruction 
at the hands of a foreign hostile invader. 
It’s disorienting. It’s enraging. It’s terri-
fying.
” 
We could commemorate that terrify-
ing day with a somber mourning, per-
haps a fast day. But Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah 
already has its character in the Jewish calendar. In the 
prayer book, we describe it as “the season of our joy.
” 
Schwartz defines the day as “the traditional end of 
the penitential season, a day normally imbued with 
hope for an abundant rain-filled year and confidence 
that we have achieved G-d’s forgiveness.
” 
If we celebrate Divine forgiveness contentedly this 
year, Schwartz asks, wouldn’t that count as “humilia-
tion of those who fell one year ago?” Further, he asks, 
“What of holy rage? … We, too, are entitled to be 

angry with Him. We, too, are allowed to say, ‘Sorry, 
not this year. You hurt us too badly. We’re not over 
it.
’”
On the other hand, he observes, “How dare we not 
celebrate?” After all, “The savages who attack us last 
year want us to wallow in the misery they wrought. 
They want us to abandon hope … if we give in to the 
pain, Hamas wins.
” 
Schwartz, who describes himself as a lawyer and 
semi-professional hazzan, decides that he wants to go 
on living as he did before. 
“Simchat Torah has never been a big event for 
me. As a Kohein, I’m usually accorded the honor of 
leading the first Hakafa [carrying the Torah around 
the synagogue]. I dance during it, and then … I am 
usually in my seat, learning Mishnayot, or maybe 
exchanging pleasantries with a friend,
” he said. 
“I imagine I’ll do the same this year. But I fear 
that … my pursuit of the mundane is to chase after 
the unattainable. Before the war, I acted as I did on 
Simchat Torah because I wanted to. 
Now, it’s what I have to do. That makes 
all the difference.
” 
He wants to, but he might not be able 
to. It will take an act of will to live out an 
ordinary Simchat Torah. 
Rabbi Herschel Finman of Jewish 
Ferndale, facing the same dilemma, 
writes: “This year, Shemini Atzeret 
and Simchat Torah need to be celebrated with the 
same joy, if not more, than in the past. The Talmud 
explains that joy breaks all boundaries. The greater 

the boundary, the greater the joy to overcome it. If we 
have been terrorized by the terrorists, then the terror-
ists have won.
”
Rabbi Finman does feel the need for a more som-
ber commemoration, which will not coincide with 
Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah: Jewish Ferndale held 
a Music and Meditation Memorial on Oct. 7.
”
Rabbi Finman thus plans separate days for joy and 
for mourning. 

MOURNING AND CELEBRATION
Jewish history goes back a long way; our ancestors 
have often felt the need to mourn on festivals. 
Historian and Rabbi J. J. Schacter 
has written about the ways the Jewish 
communities of Rhein valley com-
memorated the massacre of Jews that 
occurred on Shavuot in 1096, when the 
warriors of the First Crusade reached 
the Jewish community of Mainz. They 
added memorial prayers to services of 
the Shabbat before and the Shabbat after Shavuot, 
and they added mournful poems to the liturgy on the 
existing fast day of the Ninth of Av. 
Another rabbi with a deep interest in history, 
Professor Rabbi David Golinkin of the Schechter 
Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, frames his 
response to “How should we observe Simchat Torah 
this coming year?” by reviewing this history in detail. 
The communities debated about whether to add 
an additional day of mourning on some other date. 
Various communities added the memorial prayer 

BRANDON SCHWARTZ

Daniel 
Schwartz

SUKKOT

40 | OCTOBER 17 • 2024 J
N

Rabbi 
Herschel 
Finman

Rabbi J. J. 
Schacter

Congregants at the Downtown Synagogue dance in the street during a past Simchat Torah.

How will we celebrate 
Shemini Atzeret/Simchat 
Torah after last year?

LOUIS FINKELMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The Season 
of Our

