Jews Survive Because Torah Supports Them

 This article is written in first person voice, but I am not the writer. This article has been forwarded through the internet, and I happened upon in a WhatsApp chat group. It is a very moving story.

A friend of mine found these images. I include them to illustrate the story. It is expected that the story is actually associated with these images.

Nogah Safer is going around Israel writing a Torah.
Each person gets a letter.
This is at a gathering of survivors from the Nova Music Festival.

Last night was one of those "beyond" moments.

I once again had the great merit to accompany my friend Nogah Safer as he "tours" around Israel with the Torah scroll he is very close to completing, giving soldiers and communities that were evacuated after October 7th the opportunity to write a letter in it.

Last week we went to an army base. Super super powerful.

But last night was on a whole other level.

We went to a wedding hall that had been transformed into a place of gathering and healing for survivors of the Nova party, from which 364 beautiful souls were murdered by Hamas terrorists, so many people were injured and dozens were kidnapped and taken into captivity in Gaza.

Last night there were hundreds of young Israelis there. There was food, music, stations for different healing treatments, and a stage on which musicians performed and people spoke.

On the far wall of the hall, it said, in English, in huge blue lights "We Will Dance Again".

Wow.

And then we, the only religious-looking people there, set up a table in the corner, Nogah laid out the Torah scroll, we started playing music, and slowly people started to come over to ask what we were doing.

Nogah explained to them how he wanted to give survivors from Nova the powerful merit of writing a letter in a Torah scroll.

People were blown away. They never were presented with such an opportunity. Many of them never saw a Torah scroll so close up.

The first person stepped up and stood next to Nogah as he wrote a letter for him, followed by a big hug.

And then the next person.

And then the next.

Nogah didn't stop writing for over three hours.

By the night's end, almost everyone at that gathering had come over. People simply wanted to take part, they wanted to connect, they wanted to experience this rare and unique opportunity of participating in the writing of a letter in the Torah.

And many of them dedicated their letters...

To friends who were murdered at the party.

To friends who were taken as hostages by Hamas and are still in captivity.

One of the last women to take part was in a wheelchair. She lost a leg in the attack on October 7th.

It was all heartbreaking. Absolutely heartbreaking.

And at the same time the entire experience, the entire night, was so powerful and inspiring. Even uplifting.

Seeing people coming together. Taking care of each other. Loving each other. Lifting each other up. Helping each other to heal and to learn how to continue on.

At the end of this extraordinary night, I realized something.

It's not only our common enemy in this war that unifies us.

It's not only our common desire to defeat and destroy Hamas that unifies us.

It's not only our common desire to live peacefully in our land that unifies us.

On the deepest level, it's the Torah that unifies us.

Religious, not religious, it doesn't matter.

Last night, I saw the Torah as a giant magnet drawing every kind of Jew towards it. Everyone was included and everyone felt included. Guys with tattoos and body piercings asked, "Can I?" Women came up to us and asked, "Can women also participate?"

"Of course," we said. "Everyone's invited!"

Because the Torah belongs to all of us.

And we belong to it.

Because we find our deepest and truest selves in it.

As Jewish tradition teaches: every Jew is like a letter in the Torah.

And last night I felt like everyone who came up to the Torah was searching for their letter in the Torah.

Which means, essentially, they were searching for themselves.

Because after the disaster and catastrophe of October 7th, everyone – everyone – is looking for themselves and their way in this world on a whole new level.