Being the Shabbat of Sukkot we read Kohelet. There we read:

A season is set for everything, a time for every experience under heaven:

A time for being born and a time for dying,
A time for planting and a time for uprooting the planted;

A time for slaying and a time for healing,
A time for tearing down and a time for building up;

A time for weeping and a time for laughing,
A time for wailing and a time for dancing;

A time for throwing stones and a time for gathering stones,
A time for embracing and a time for shunning embraces;

A time for seeking and a time for losing,
A time for keeping and a time for discarding;

A time for ripping and a time for sewing,
A time for silence and a time for speaking;

A time for loving and a time for hating;
A time for war and a time for peace. ( Kohelet 3:1-8)

After two years of war in Israel and Gaza and a pending ceasefire and potential peace plan these words hit differently this year. A special thanks goes out to President Trump for making this happen. We have had way too much slaying and we desperately need some healing. We have had too much destruction and we need some rebuilding. Thinking about this with the prospects of what might happen in Israel soon, I was curious about the dancing. I am sure that there will be dancing when the hostages finally come home, but that will not mollify the pain of the last two years.

In some ways this reminded me of the ” We Will Dance Again” motto from the survivors of the Nova Concert. There was a 2024 documentary film by the same same that covers the Hamas attack on the Nova music festival in Israel on October 7, 2023. The film uses survivor testimonies, mobile phone footage, and footage taken by Hamas to tell the minute-by-minute story of the massacre.

This sentiment spoke to the demand for a hope even when there is none. This Shabbat we get to hope again. And hopefully we will get to dance again.

This takes on another meaning in light of the the the midrash. There we learn:

Rabbi Yehoshua of Sikhnin interpreted the verses regarding Israel…A time to dance, as is written “And the streets of the city shall be filled, with boys and girls playing in its streets.” (Zechariah 8:5) (Kohelet Rabbah 3:8:2)

In many ways this speaks to the depth of what it means to live in sacred community. Together we curate collective pain and collective joy. It is our ability to bring together our experience of war that we can appreciate peace. This playing is the ability to think over a longer framework of time. As a community we dance between these elements in opposition in Kohelet. Our intergenerational playing is the secret to our surviving and thriving.

We will dance again. Moadim L’Simcha and Shabbat Shalom