Every night, there are more and more people flocking to the Kotel for Selichot. It’s not yet the middle of Elul, yet it already looks like the eve of Yom Kippur, the highlight of the year. And it’s the same at Selichot all over the world — “Sold out,” if you can say that about a prayer service!

I’ve heard so many people asking, dejectedly, how we will celebrate the holidays this year, but in my opinion, we should focus on something else. True, we’ve never been so sad or perplexed, but we’ve also never wanted so much to connect, to pray, to gather together to gain strength from one another! For many coming to the Kotel this year, it’s their first time. Their hearts have been awakened to the healing and holiness of the month of Elul and the upcoming Yamim Noraim.

Rabbi Yisrael Goldberg, the Chabad emissary to the Rechavia and Nachlaot neighborhoods of Jerusalem, moved just recently to a new and larger building; however, he already understands that the space will be too small to contain the overflow crowds this Tishrei.

I saw him this week running around and arranging for a giant prayer tent to be set up. Similar tents will be erected all over the country — in community centers, parks and squares, because how many synagogues or Chabad houses have the space to contain the record numbers of people who have expressed interest in coming this year?!

People will come to shul to rejoice, to cry, to pray and to feel a sense of togetherness. And on Simchat Torah, they will also remember the 1,200 holy souls on the day they ascended to Shamayim.

Those connected to a shul should be aware of this and be ready to open the gates and invite newcomers. Those who don’t have a shul are invited to join.

The slogan on the ads prepared by Rabbi Goldberg and other Chabad emissaries is: “We’ve saved you a seat!” But judging from the volume of requests he’s receiving, from those who are thirsting for meaning and for community, Rabbi Goldberg said that maybe the slogan should be: “We’ve saved you a hug.”

The Missile From Yemen and Some Important Reminders

1. Early Sunday morning, sirens jolted the residents of the coastal plain region and central Israel, completely disrupting their routine and daily schedules. Well, this is how our brothers and sisters in the North have been living for quite some time. Is our heart truly with them? And in fact, this is how our brothers and sisters in the South have lived for decades(!), while most of us dismissed it as “intermittent rocket fire, no casualties.”
2. This isn’t the story of the communities bordering Gaza; today it’s about the entire world. Our enemy is willing to make the effort to launch a missile from thousands of kilometers away, from Yemen. We don’t share a border, we haven’t conquered any of their territory, and yet absolute evil marks us as its absolute enemy, generation after generation. What does this say about us and our role?
3. There were no casualties from the missile, thank God. And within seconds, literally seconds, people started flooding social media with jokes: “Okay, I get it, I’ll wake up on time for Selichot,” someone wrote, while many parents remarked, “If it wouldn’t have been for the Yemenites, I wouldn’t have managed to get the kids out of bed on a Sunday morning.” It’s not just the black humor we’re so famous for; it reflects an underlying optimism even in our challenging reality.
4. Above all, we must take comfort and maintain our hope. In the Haftarah last Shabbat morning, all over the world the Jews read the words: “For you shall spread out to the right and to the left, and your descendants will dispossess nations” — a Divine promise that all these enemies will eventually vanish, and we will flourish. And also: “For a brief moment I abandoned you – but with great compassion I will gather you. In an outburst of anger, I hid My face from you for a moment – but with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you.”

We’ve seen so many of these ancient promises come true. May we soon merit to see them all fulfilled, speedily in our days.

The Weekly Parsha: Ki Tavo

One of the most famous greetings exchanged between two Jews when they meet appears in a verse from this week’s parsha: “Blessed are you when you come, and blessed are you when you depart.” In its simplest meaning, we wish that someone will be blessed when they leave home in the morning and return in the evening.

Our Sages give two additional explanations: On the personal level, the verse confers a blessing upon one who comes to learn Torah in the beit midrash and one who leaves to go to work; on the national level we should be blessed when we enter the Land of Israel, and also when we leave it and go into exile. This is a blessing for the Jewish nation to help it survive all the exiles and diasporas throughout its history.

Rashi gives a different explanation and says that this verse refers to a person’s entry into and exit from life. We should try to remain complete throughout the entire journey: “Your exit from the world should be the same as your entry, without sin.” Just as an infant is pure and has not sinned, so we should try to keep the slate as clean as possible throughout our lives. We are blessed when we come into the world; let us try to leave in the same manner.

We also read in this week’s parsha, “This day you have become a nation.” What “day” was Moses referring to? He wasn’t speaking about the day of the Exodus, nor about the day that the Torah was given.

Rashi explains that Moshe was saying his farewells to the people just before his death. He handed over his sefer Torah to the tribe of Levi, which caused major discontentment among the Jewish people. They all went to Moshe to say that they had also received the Torah at Mount Sinai and that it belonged to them just as much as to the tribe of Levi, and asked Moshe why he had only charged the Levites with keeping the Torah after his death.

Thrilled with this complaint, Moshe responded, “This day you have become a nation.” Rashi explains, “Today I have understood that you really wish to cling to God.”

Remember, Moshe had heard many complaints from the Jewish people throughout their 40-year sojourn in the wilderness — about food, water and the route to the Land of Israel. Now they came with a completely different kind of complaint; they too wanted to be a link in the chain of passing on the Torah to the next generation. They also want to keep its commandments and be actively involved in the Torah. Moshe was so moved by their concern and sense of responsibility to the Torah that he was essentially saying, “Now I know that this entire journey has been worthwhile, and we have succeeded. You are now a nation.”

Translated by Yehoshua Siskin, Janine Muller Sherr, Chava Wilschanski*

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Sivan Rahav Meir is a primetime news anchor on television and radio. Her “Daily Thought,” translated into 17 languages, has hundreds of thousands of followers on social media. She has a weekly podcast on Tablet, called “Sivan Says,” and has published several books In Hebrew and English. Sivan was chosen by Globes newspaper as Israel’s most popular female media figure and by the Jerusalem Post as one of the 50 most influential Jews worldwide. She lives in Jerusalem with her husband Yedidya and their five children.