Reflections for October 7
A year ago, things were very different. A year ago, we spoke about “never again” in the abstract. Many people in Israel spoke of peace deals and two state solutions. As a SoCal Jewish boy growing up in the 90’s, many of my friends grandparents were Holocaust survivors. I couldn’t understand or even really believe how it could have happened. The world was so kind and accepting of Jews. Every year we read in the Passover Hagaddah, “In every generation, they rise up to destroy us, but G-d saves us from their hands” and I couldn’t help but tell myself that our generation was different and this verse didn’t apply today. Now I understand. Some people call it October 7th. I call it the Simchas Torah massacre. Just like we were attacked in 1973 on Yom Kippur, because it was Yom Kippur, in 2023 we were attacked on Simchas Torah, because it was Simchas Torah. What is the Jewish response? Elie Weisel, a famous author, professor and Holocaust survivor met the Rebbe and...