Traditions flow from generation to generation to generation. Laws codified centuries ago are observed today. Prayers and holidays have become age-old traditions. On Passover, Jews, no matter where in the world they live, recall the slavery suffered by ancient Jews in Egypt. Every Purim, Jews retell the evils of Haman, and every Purim, we stamp out his name.
Every Jew with a Jewish soul remembers. For Jews, it is personal. It is woven into the fabric of our lives.
Year after year, as we approach these next few weeks of the holiday season, memory and history resonate even louder. And yet, as steeped as we are in our traditional ways of yore, we can adapt and change and incorporate new historical events into our lives.
We are about to enter the Jewish year 5786. As always, we will offer prayers on Rosh Hashanah, fast on Yom Kippur, build our huts for Sukkot – and then this year – we will come to an abrupt stop.
Events from recent history
We will step back, not into ancient history, but into recent history. Shmini Atzeret/Simhat Torah can never be the same for any Jew with a heart and a soul. The searing pain of Shmini Atzeret/Simhat Torah 5784 remains raw and unhealed, the wound still gaping open.
The Jewish nation will remember October 7 forever. This abominably awful part of our history will be incorporated into Jewish memory for future generations precisely because, for us, memory and history are so intertwined and are inextricably bound.
Another of our traditions is counting. We count 10 days of atonement from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur. We count 49 days from Passover to Shavuot. We count seven days and then a month and then a year after the death of a loved one. But never before in our history have we counted as we do now.
Never before have we counted, day by day, over 700 and still counting for the lives of our fellow Jews held in captivity by the ugliest, cruelest, most vile Jew-haters of our time. Because of this Jew-hatred, Israel has been transformed into a pariah nation. With each passing day, as the counting for our hostages marches on, as the IDF continues its defensive war to defeat Hamas and to return our abused and kidnapped hostages, Israel’s reputation throughout almost the entire world devolves.
Most of the world has turned a cold shoulder toward Israel. Israelis have been disinvited, ostracized, and verbally and physically attacked. Israeli leaders have been threatened with imprisonment on once-friendly, now hostile, foreign soil.
There is irony here. The irony of abandoning Israel, whether in culture, the sciences, academia, entertainment or tech, sports, music, or even in chess, is that despite the isolation and despite the war on Hamas and the totally justified actions Israel engages to free hostages, Israel has continued to be remarkably productive and creative on all levels.
Creating a new reality
Despite the personal strain and the nationwide drain of reservists leaving their families and their jobs to serve the IDF, Israel is still being creative. That creative spirit is part and parcel of what Israel has been and will always be. October 7 has been a catalyst for even more creativity.
The personal suffering is ours to bear. In the end, however, it is the world that will suffer for isolating Israel.
A new reality is ensuing. As sure as worldwide Jew-hatred has emerged from the shadows, new real friendships are being forged. Israel does not need the support or approbation of those who do not differentiate between Hamas and other Palestinians.
How absurd is it that those countries that, until 700-plus days ago, demanded peace as a prerequisite for recognition of a Palestinian state, are now choosing to recognize the Palestinian state only because of Hamas’s terror and Israel’s defensive response.
That shift is seismic, but Israel will prevail.
The Jewish people are builders; we are producers. Haters, by definition, are destroyers. Our creative brilliance and genius emerge even, and especially, in difficult times. We know the difference between good and evil.
Jews are not satisfied with simply surviving. Our mission to create a better nation, a better homeland, and, in so doing, a better world is embedded in our history. We have faced suffering and devastation before, and the lessons we learned are embedded in our memory.
The writer is a columnist and a social and political commentator. Watch his TV show Thinking Out Loud on JBS.