The past few days have been like a nightmare.
I’ve cried a lot. I’ve felt tremendous pain. And since the end of Simchat Torah, I obsessively check the news.
I am also a rabbi, which means I can't just sit by myself and wallow in my emotions. And during the holiday of Simchat Torah, with news trickling in about the situation, I had to speak.
Before Hakafot, I was candid with my dear community members. How can we dance and sing when such unspeakable tragedy is taking place in Israel? How can we be joyful?
But it was Simchat Torah. How can we not dance? How could we not be joyful? Jews danced in the Gulags. Jews danced in the concentration camps. No one will stop us from celebrating Simchat Torah now, either.
We spoke about the fact that all Jews are like one body. When you make one part of the body healthier, the entire body gets better. When we dance with the Torah in Hackensack, our brothers and sisters in Israel are uplifted as well.
And we danced. We sang "Am Yisrael Chai." We sang "we want Moshiach now". We sang, we danced, and we sang some more.
The next morning, Harry, one of our community members, told me: "Rabbi, as we danced last night, I felt like we were sending protection to Israel!"
The evening drew near, and after not touching my phone for 48 hours due to the holiness of Shabbat and Holidays, I dreaded turning it on. My worries for my family and friends in Israel were immense. Thank G‑d, they are all okay, at least physically.
And then I desperately needed to know what the Rebbe would have said.
The Rebbe's teachings have always had a deep impact on my life. In moments of happiness and in moments of despair, I look to the Rebbe's teachings for guidance, comfort, and inspiration.
The first thing that came to mind was the Yom Kippur War. And although I was born after the war, I've heard a lot about how deeply involved the Rebbe was in the war efforts.
Years prior to the war, when Israel and Egypt were engaged in the War of Attrition, the Rebbe pleaded with Israel's leadership not to concede land to the Egyptians and not to fall into the trap of a cease-fire that would be used by the enemy to advance weapons. At one farbrengen gathering, the Rebbe quoted the words of the prophet Isaiah: "Why have I come and there is no man? Why have I called and no one answers?" He broke down sobbing, pouring out tears for the lives he was desperate to save.
Merely 24 hours after the cease-fire, the Egyptian army had already already breached its terms, moving heavy artillery closer to Israel. That was the first move that eventually led to the attack on Israel during Yom Kippur.
On the spiritual front, months before the war broke out, the Rebbe pleaded with everyone to increase their good deeds and seek divine protection. A few weeks before Yom Kippur, he asked for a massive gathering of all Jewish children in Israel to be held by the Western Wall, where they would pray together. No one understood the Rebbe's urgency, but they followed his instructions.
I also knew how much the Rebbe was involved during and after the war. In addition to the Chabad Chassidim serving in the IDF, Chabadniks visited and cheered soldiers on the front lines, helping them fulfill the mitzvah of tefillin. He sent personal letters to families of the victims, bringing them comfort and consolation; the list goes on and on.
So what did the Rebbe say?
The first time the Rebbe addressed the Chassidim was on 13 Tishrei, just three days after the war began. And when I started reading the Rebbe's words, I was so surprised to see that the Rebbe was speaking about... increasing in joy!
Joy? How can you increase in joy when Israel is under such a vicious attack? How can the Rebbe, who saw his dire warnings fall on deaf ears and is now witnessing the dire consequences, speak about joy?
It slowly dawned on me.
Back then, just as it is now, Israel was at war.
And in war, you need to do everything you can to win.
You can't go into battle with a faint heart or low morale. A battle cannot be won with tears. You need to be strong, courageous, and positive. Despite everything that happened up to that point, you need to be filled with faith that G‑d will be with you.
The Rebbe quoted a famous Jewish idea that G‑d is our “shadow,” reflecting our behavior. When we act joyously, He mirrors that joy back to us. Despite everything, we need—we must!—be filled with positive energy!
I wish I could end this article with tips on how to implement this in our lives. While I understand what the Rebbe said, my heart still battles with the forces trying to pull me down.
For now, I still cry. I still check the news often (although less obsessively). Yet, whenever my thoughts start to feel dark, I try to remind myself what the Rebbe said.
I know what I need to do. I need to build my positive energy. I need to increase my strength. And then, I can use it to double down on what I started doing: helping my fellow community members perform more Mitzvot to send divine protection to Israel, assisting my IDF acquaintances in purchasing the equipment they need, and getting involved in supporting Chabad of Israel's activities across the entire country.
After all, Israel needs all the help it can get. And we are all its soldiers.
Join the Discussion