Simchat Torah was a creation of the diaspora; it shouldn’t be altered because of events in Israel

We are seeing many calls this year to do Simchat Torah differently. In the light of the October 7^th attacks, which took place last year on Simchat Torah, there are suggestions that our joy should be tempered with sadness – that the traditional dancing of the festival should be replaced or changed to make it more suitable for mourning. I understand this sentiment. I remember seeing the news on my phone on the way to synagogue last year. At that point we didn’t know the extent of what had happened and so my community decided to carry on as normal which I felt was the right decision. At that point the attack hadn’t yet been framed as ‘October 7^th’, this quasi-mythical event which has been repeatedly framed as the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust. So, this year, particularly in Israel, there have been many calls for changes in ritual such as more morning prayers and conducting some of the hakafot silently instead of joyfully.

For me what’s important is the kavannah, the intention of these changes. If the changes in ritual are in memory of all who have died in the past year in the war that began on October 7^th, be they Israeli, Palestinian or Lebanese, then I don’t object. But if, as seems predominantly to be the case, they are designed purely to mourn the Israelis who were killed on the 7^th of October or the hostages or soldiers who have died since then I don’t think it’s acceptable. Because it is not enough to mourn the Jews and Israelis that have died – we must also mourn the 10s of thousands of Palestinians and now Lebanese people killed in the war that’s now lasted just over a year. There’s something almost obscene about only mourning our dead and not mourning the deaths that ‘we’ have actually caused. This is of course is the story that many Jews don’t accept, the story that says we have not only lost people this year, but we have taken lives as well, some 42,000 of them, and probably many more. It is not just a case of a Palestinian massacre of Israelis it is also a case of an Israeli massacre of Palestinians, one which may well have reached the threshold of genocide. Surely we cannot mark one of these ritually, and not the other?

A recording of a live panel event from last month

This is a recording of a live event held on 18th September at Mosaic Jewish Community in Stanmore. It was a panel entitled What Would a Jewish Liberation Theology Look Like?, and comprised Rabbis Robyn Ashworth-Steen, Leah Jordan, Anthony Lazarus Magrill, Daniel Lichman and Judith Rosen-Berry, and was chaired by me, Joseph Finlay. This is an edited recording, containing all of the panel contributions but omitting most of the contributions from the floor, as they were sadly not well picked up by the recording.

It’s a rich and multi-faceted conversation, with subjects including the book of Exodus, the character of Moses, the influence of empires, both ancient and modern rabbinic attitudes to poverty, the difficulties of doing liberation theology within a halachic framework, the possibilities of a ‘haskalah chadasha’ (new Jewish enlightenment) and the opportunities and challenges of attempting to organise synagogues around ideas of liberation. It is not especially focussed on issues of Israel/Palestine, although I did bring that subject in towards the end. While the current conflict is omnipresent it seemed important to consider issues of Judaism and Liberation Theology in the broadest possible way. I hope it is of interest, and can lead to many more such conversations.

Remembering All the Victims of the Last Year

Today, 7^th October 2024, sees memorial events across the Jewish world, in memory of the roughly 1100 Israelis who were killed on October 7^th 2023. In Jewish terms it is the end of Shnat Ha’evel, the year of mourning that follows the death of a close relative. It is right and good to mourn them, and to remember each of them in all their individuality and specificity, not only as a group united by the day of their deaths. They leave behind a huge gap amongst their families and friends. May their memories be for a blessing.