Question

Hi Rabbi,

I see many clips of Jews dancing. IDF soldiers dancing, people in rallies dancing, at the airport… I don't get it: the situation is so dire. Why is everyone dancing?

—D. Spondent

Response

Hi D,

The simple answer is that this is a war and if you walk into a battle zone with tears in your eyes, you've lost before the first bullet is fired.

It's a particular sort of war—a war against terror. The strategy of terror is, you guessed it, to terrify. Those who are terrified are the victims. Those who stay calm, upbeat, and optimistic are the heroes.

Those who are terrified are the victims. Those who stay calm, upbeat, and optimistic are the heroes.

How do you stay upbeat in the face of tragedy—brutal crimes so horrific the mind can't begin to digest how human beings are capable of committing such atrocities?

Simple. You don't think about them. Which includes, quite obviously, that you avoid whenever possible looking at any image, as well as reading or listening to any account of them.

How do you stay calm in the face of the extreme danger that Israel—and indeed the entire Jewish people wherever they may be—currently face?

Simple again. You keep that in the back of your mind, but in the forefront, you focus on our strength, our unity, our resilience through every catastrophe of the past. And you hold onto only one question, “What can I do to help right now?”

If you can sing and dance with other Jews, you do that. What better way to lift their spirits?

If you can make another human being’s life a little lighter with a smile and a good word, you do that. When there's darkness in the world, a little light goes a long way.

If you can express the joy in your heart at seeing the wondrous and eternal togetherness of the Jewish People once again rising to the surface, sing it out loud and let the world know.

This is how we have survived. This is how Jews have illuminated the world over many millennia. With simchah, with utter confidence in G‑d, and a solid belief in our amazing people.

It’s called simchah shel mitzvah, which means that there’s a special sort of joy in doing a mitzvah.

It’s not mindless. It’s not frivolous. It’s serious joy. It’s the joy of a soul reconnecting with its origin, a Jew feeling one with our people, and one with the Creator of Heaven and Earth.

Because that’s where you’re at when doing a mitzvah. You’re uniting heaven and earth, and bringing peace between them.

That’s where all peace begins. And peace is something to celebrate.