This past week, we completed both our annual Torah reading cycle and our yearly journey through the High Holidays—culminating together in the joy of Simchat Torah. On this day, Jewish communities around the world read the final verses of Devarim (Deuteronomy) and immediately began again with the opening words of Bereshit (Genesis). The symbolism is profound: even as we finish one chapter, we begin another, reminding us that the story of our people—and our own lives—never truly ends.
Each year as we turn the scroll and begin again, we carry with us the fullness of the year that has passed—its moments of love and loss, triumph and disappointment, birth and death. This year, we have lived all of this against the backdrop of ongoing war, and now, at long last, we witness the long-prayed-for return of living hostages—again coinciding with Simchat Torah. As we danced with our precious Torah scrolls this past week, we also gave thanks for the precious gift of life and for having reached this sacred moment together.
This Shabbat, as we read Bereshit once more, we encounter the timeless story of creation: “The earth was unformed and void—tohu va’vohu—and darkness covered the face of the deep.” From that chaos, God brought forth light, separating darkness from light, creating day and night.
So too, as we watch the hostages emerge from their places of darkness into the light of reunion and embrace, we glimpse creation’s pattern once again. Together—with the hostages and their families, with our communities, with Israel, and with the Jewish people—we are striving together to move from chaos toward order, from darkness toward light, from pain toward healing.
As we begin again with Bereshit, may this Shabbat bring us the blessings of renewal—hope, healing, and the courage to begin anew.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Sarah Tasman
