Dear Friends,
As I imagine many of you saw on the news Gilad Shalit was freed and returned to his family yesterday. There are many complex and conflicting emotions that Israeli Jews and Jews in the diaspora feel right now: relief at the end of a long ordeal; joy for the family of Gilad Shalit; fear of what the Palestinian prisoners – many of whom are terrorists with blood on their hands - might do now that they have been released; anger at the release of these terrorists; disgust at the way Gilad Shalit was interviewed by Egyptian television; even hope that the end of this ordeal will somehow sow the seeds for a renewed peace process.
Tonight Reform Jewish congregations around the world celebrate Simchat Torah. (It is tomorrow night for Conservative and Orthodox Jews in the diaspora; tonight for all Jews in Israel.) The focus of the celebration of this holiday are the “hakafot,” the 7 circuits made around the sanctuary in which we parade and celebrate the Torah. This evening at our 7:00 p.m. service we will honor Gilad Shalit by dedicating one of our hakafot to him for his remarkable courage and fortitude. I hope that you will be able to join us.
Sunday evening there will be a gathering for our entire northern New Jersey Jewish community at the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades at 7:00 p.m. to recognize the meaning of Shalit’s release to us. For more information click on http://www.jfnnj.org/page.
Chag Sameiach – Happy Simchat Torah,
Rabbi Jordan Millstein
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