“God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. God saw that the light was good, so God separated the light from the darkness.” (Genesis 1:3-4)
This past week’s Torah portion, Bereshit – Genesis, or “Beginning” – strikes a deep chord with Jews across the globe. Ever timely, the Torah chronicles how the metaphysical manifests as the physical and how God transcends time and space with His infinite prowess molding down into the finite.
Following the return of the hostages, the winding down of the Israel-Hamas War, and the potential expansion of the Abraham Accords, the Jewish people is undergoing a rebirth, a new spark of light, a new creation moment.
Moments of joy
We watched videos of families erupting in bliss, parents collapsing onto their children, and children clinging to their parents in the purest joy. Evyatar David, a lover of music whom Hamas starved into a human skeleton and forced to dig his own grave, can now sit at the dinner table, surrounded by a garden of nourishment and life. Alon Ohel has redeemed those yellow pianos scattered across Israel and will fill the air with Debussy’s Clair de Lune.
Avinatan Or has been reunited with Noa Argamani, and together they can once again travel the world. Omri Miran can now hold his wife close, the mother of his two young girls, Roni and Alma, whom he can now bless every Shabbat.
This reunion in a historic hour proved that the seemingly impossible can become possible – out of nothing, something. The goodness of light finally brought those languishing in Hamas’s hellish tunnels for two years of void, darkness, and confusion back into life. This Simchat Torah, the day that coincided with the release of the last 20 living hostages from Gaza, marked a divine end to these years of gloom that have opened the gates to Jewish renewal.
Simchat Torah marks the end of the yearly Torah reading cycle and a new beginning again from Genesis. The hostages’ return on that very day reminds us of something else in Bereshit: emphasizing the quality of discernment as a fundamental function for a healthy society. Fatefully, the word “Bereshit” shares the same root as the Hebrew word for health, "briut."
To discern as a human is to act in the image of God, as He discerned and separated light from dark. Discernment means separating good from evil, right from wrong, and order from chaos.
Israel's strength
Alongside the release of the hostages, the light of that day shone as Israel revealed to the world an unparalleled strength.
We were reminded to tell the world that Israel stands on the side of light, and in the light of day, she has triumphed over the forces of evil: Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and the Iranian regime. Jerusalem did not start this war, and when it came, the Jewish nation was reluctant to partake in the horrors of battle. Yet, when the dust settled, Israel was prepared to stand victorious and dignified on the battlefield.
And its losses
The forces of darkness may still haunt families for whom “bring them home” will never materialize.
The families of Nova partygoers whose loved ones were murdered in the midst of the dying music; the families whose sons and daughters took their own lives, unable to bear the weight of Hamas’s butchery; the families of those like Yarden Bibas, who will never get to embrace his wife and sons; the family of released hostage Eli Sharabi, whose brother, Yossi, was returned in a casket enveloped in a blue and white flag bearing the emblem of his people; the families of soldiers killed in action – soldiers who fought like lions, who fought to see this moment of light. It was because of their ultimate sacrifice that the light could shine through.
For these families, the rain pours every day, and for flowers to bloom, time would need to be turned back – an impossibility. For the hostages who survived, they too will never be able to recreate the life they lived before Hamas stripped them of dignity for two long years. However, they remind us of our ability to restore ourselves to health despite being unable to wash October 7 away.
Our ability to heal
We remember how Omer Shem Tov recited Psalm 20, “May the Lord answer you when you are in distress; may the name of the God of Jacob protect you,” to find hope in the horrors of captivity and how Agam Berger kept the Yom Kippur fast and refused to eat bread on Passover despite severe hunger. Their courageous devotion to God reminds us of how the simplest acts can give us hope in harrowing times.
When the rays of light shine, we must feel their warmth: Eli Sharabi starts every day as a free man by walking along the sea. Truly, there must be meaning in the mundane. The stars of heaven created by God are of the same atomic makeup that we feel on Earth.
“Am I my brother’s keeper?” asked Cain of God in this past week’s Torah portion. The people of Israel, and Jews around the world, answered, “Yes.” Interwoven within Bereshit, Cain and Abel teach us that we do have an obligation to care for those closest to us. These familial bonds, reflected in the House of Israel, are crucial to the health of the individual, family, and society that God stressed immediately following creation. Man-to-man relationships are inextricable from the wonders of creation.
Here lies the deeper meaning of Bereshit: the call to participate in the story.
On the first Shabbat after the hostages’ return, as families gathered around their tables and once-empty seats were filled, the Jewish people was reminded that every act of presence is an act of authorship and that taking our place at the table is to continue writing the Jewish story.
We do not know what the future may bring, but we can optimistically affirm that the Jewish story has now been reborn and brought back into the light. Together, the Jewish people can begin to mend its wounds, grow in strength and spirit, and hopefully share the fruits of peace and prosperity with peace-loving neighbors. A newfound embrace of Israel, should it come sooner rather than later, will be the creation and beginning of a whole new world.
Sabrina Soffer is deputy chief of staff at the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy. Jeremy Davis is author of the Substack “A Road Less Traveled.”