(no subject)

[seekingferret]

The Rabbi stopped hakafot at the fifth Hakafah and instead of singing dance tunes and dancing around with the Torah, he spoke to us. He told us that they'd decided to do Hakafot as normal today because Simchat Torah is not a frivolous event, it's a celebration of the Torah that is the center of our lives. But nothing is normal right now. Then he asked us to spread out around the room in a big circle and he led us in singing "Acheinu" and "Im Eshkachech". It was incredibly emotionally moving but also complicated. It felt wrong and out of place, or maybe what I mean is it reminded us that anything we did today would be wrong and out of place, given what's going on in Israel. Then we sang "Kol Haolam Kulo"- the whole world is a very narrow bridge- and as we switched to the second line of the song- the key trick is to have no fear at all- we returned to dancing with the Torahs.

Praying for klal Yisrael. Praying for the Gazan civilians. Praying for the safety of my friends and familly. Praying for the end to this war, and the war in Ukraine, and all wars.