Aaron Lee was raised in San Francisco’s Jewish community. But it wasn’t until recently, when some Chabad boys in his San Francisco neighborhood stopped him to put on tefillin, that he suddenly felt the need to delve deeper into Jewish study. The Oct. 7 attack on Israel had left him wary of antisemitism, he says, as did the secular world’s conversation around it. He’d been a writer and even quit writing.
“I was angry, and I was looking for an opportunity to demonstrate my Jewishness in a public way,” Lee recalls. “Those boys coming up to me and engaging me, I thought that was also an example of Hashem [G‑d] looking out for me.”
Since then, and going into the new year, he attends synagogue, studies Torah every Tuesday with Rabbi Mendel Levin, his local Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi, and has started looking at the world through a more Jewish lens. “I love talking [Jewish law] with the rabbi,” he says. “The Sages were just very excellent logicians and logic from thousands of years ago stands up today.”
He’s one of a number of people who’ve felt profoundly impacted by Oct. 7 and everything that’s happened since, and is looking to the new year with new perspectives and an attitude of Jewish growth.
Levin, who co-directs San Francisco’s Chabad of the Neighborhood with his wife, Devorie, says he’s noticed many Jews are more ready and open to engaging with Torah and mitzvot in the wake of events in Israel. “I think that people want to feel a part of what’s happening, and the ones most associated with what’s happening are those on the front lines in Israel, and the way to feel a part of it is to try and take that same level of dedication, that same level of energy, and invest it into spreading Yiddishkeit,” he says.
Lee, for his part, says he has embraced his Jewish identity like never before and found a welcoming place that fosters it. “Jewishness is back to being a part of my life,” he says. “For the new year, I am more dedicated to Jewish values and less dedicated to secular values.”
That means he wants to study and live by Torah values, he explains. “When I was feeling a darkness of outrage and teetering towards moral nihilism—the Torah, halachah, it’s been a way for me to orient myself in this darkness.”
‘Unapologetically Jewish’
In the aftermath of Oct. 7, something likewise sparked inside Gal Mark of Boca Raton, Fla., a feeling she’s directed towards strengthening her Jewish identity and becoming more involved in Jewish learning. For starters, she’s taken only to drinking kosher wine when she’s out with friends. “I felt the responsibility to take something on,” she says. “It’s hard, but it’s snowballed positively. I used to get my nails done on Shabbat, and I always did laundry, and eventually, I said ‘I’m not going to get my nails done on Shabbat anymore.’ The thing that got everything going was Oct. 7.”
Not too long ago, Saturdays were a time for her to stream entertainment. Recently, she’s taken to turning off her phone for the holy day. “In the new year, I’m hoping that I just keep making G‑d proud, and I always pray to let my words be His words, and my deeds be His deeds,” she says.
For Shimon G. Levy of Detroit, the year ahead is a turning point as well, he says. A lieutenant commander in the Israel Defense Forces reserve, he’s been called up for active duty three times since Oct. 7, spending about six months in Israel since the start of the war. Going into the High Holiday season, he prays that this period brings the Jewish people into a place of even more pride in their heritage. “I hope for us to be more resolved, more proud, more unapologetically Jewish, more convicted in the values and belief systems that lead us to who we are as a community and as a people,” he says.
As the day Adam and Eve were created, Rosh Hashanah marks the universe’s birthday. Like a personal birthday, it is a time of introspection and resolution. For Levy, it is an especially poignant time of year as he will mark his own birthday on Oct. 7, making this a time of double celebration.
“I wish I could tell you that this year I wish for peace and prosperity, and apples and honey,” Levy says. “But for this to happen, we need to overcome our obstacles and be able to provide a safe and secure environment for our brothers and sisters in Israel. I wish this year for us to be unapologetically Jewish.”
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