(Yom Kippur War remains a more appropriate name because Yom Kippur is anyway a very solemn though optimistic day. But Simchat Torah/Shemini Atzeret is all about love and rejoicing with Hashem. I don't want to interfere with that in my own mind.)
If I use the Hebrew date, a lot of people won't understand. I've sometimes used the non-Jewish date, but haven't been comfortable with that either because it's not our date nor is that calendar accurate in the scheme of things.
Because of this quandary, you can see in previous posts the vacillation between the terms I use to refer to it.
I've often referred to it as the horror or slaughter that occurred "near Gaza," so I think I'll continue with that. After all, it was such a major horror and tragedy, who won't understand the reference?
One of the most recent featured a kippah-less young man with long hair and looks totally assimilated into non-Jewish street culture.
Yet he keeps Shabbat!
And because of Shabbat, he did not show up at that ill-fated party. His friends left without him to attend, and none of them survived.
Why is that someone who just started keeping Shabbat or who only committed to keeping 4 Shabbats received such incredible protection?
Why is it that Shabbat or even "just" tsniyut (dressing with dignity and modesty) saved people who attended this party, a gathering steeped into spiritual tumah, plus illicit substances, and all sorts of unwholesome behaviors and music) on one of the most elevated days of the year (Hoshanah Rabbah, the last day of Sukkot)?
Why is it that the mental promise of young assimilated woman to embrace tsniyut save her at the last minute from being taken into captivity in Gaza?
Remember, some of the people saved by tsniyut or prayer and gratitude to Hashem were not conventionally religious or even shomer Shabbat, and some had been transgressing significant Torah prohibitions up until that moment.
I believe the answer lies in the Torah's fundamental approach to inner growth, combined with the Great Love & Compassion Hashem holds for us.
In other words, Hashem wants our HEART.
It's the process that's important.
You have to sincerely try. And you have to try in the right direction. (For example, keeping Shabbat according to Torah Law and not according to compromised movements like Conservative or Reform or Reconstructionist).
All the people who connected to Hashem did so according to traditional Jewish Law (based on what they knew of it), and not imaginary leniencies.
I think we can find the answer in the Jewish NDEs, and in the people whose visit in the World to Come introduced them to Torah-true concepts, which influenced them later to return to the Torah way of life.
(All references to true stories & previous posts are linked at the end of this post below.)
As Shirli said:
It’s a process...And the Creator of the world loves that process.
He wants it to come from a place of love, from a place of genuine connection.
She stopped making it a focus in her life because, assuming she'd never reach the higher levels and piety and righteousness, she mistakenly believed that meant wasn't any point in even trying:
So I was like, "Okay, I’ll never succeed in keeping everything, so I’m already not okay. And it doesn’t matter what I do, I’ll never succeed because there’s also this, and also this, and also this...and it’s as if you tag the Creator with a label of "the Creator Who punishes" — and suddenly, there’s this understanding that He is BRIMMING with LOVE.
What does it mean that He’s full of love?
He IS love!
And He’s full of Compassion! And He wants my good!
And He’s ALWAYS listening and attentive!
And even I when I leave myself, He remains with me!
Even when we leave Him and leave ourselves, He’s still with us!
I recall a boy who worked on Shabbos.
This boy never rode the train, he always walked all the way across town to his job, and he walked back.
Now the question is, did it make any sense?
In his place where he worked he did all lamed tes melachos, he did every kind of work, and still he refused to ride?
That man is doing a tremendous thing, the man is leaving one area where he is protesting his love for the Shabbos, and anybody who is going to ridicule him is demolishing something that's precious.
***
Therefore there are lots of Jews today who are coming back, and you must be patient with them, because some of them will turn out to be the best idealists...
***
Therefore, this question is a serious question, an important question, should a man make a blessing over a piece of treifa salami?
So in practice you don't make any blessing, but I'll tell you what he should do, he should say words equivalent to a blessing in English.
He should express his gratitude to the Almighty who has given him food, and eventually that man will say birkas hamazon over a kosher meal, I guarantee you.
Taking ONE step toward Hashem means SO MUCH.
No one should dismiss anyone for ANY step they take forward toward Hashem.
No one should minimize it.
In Shamayim, they measure our behavior and thoughts by a completely different standard than normal down here in This World.
Let's end with the words of the great tzaddik, a Jew who truly understood how it works in Heaven, Rav Levi Yitzchak Bender:
- Shirli: my-entire-essence-is-mathematical-how-nearly-dying-transformed-a-committed-darwinian-evolutionist-into-a-believing-jew-plus-insights-into-how-ancient-true-hebrew-impacts-the-soul.html
- Nitzan: shabbat-is-an-inseparable-part-of-you-the-illuminating-nde-of-a-formerly-brazen-secular-woman.html
- Hila Baruch: the-only-one-judging-was-me-judging-myself-the-inspiring-nde-of-hila-baruch.html
- a-true-story-of-how-tzedakah-saves-a-person-from-death-even-after-he-was-already-dead.html
- stories-of-how-any-mitzvah-or-even-just-the-mental-commitment-to-a-mitzvah-saved-lives.html
- how-a-commitment-to-shabbat-during-the-rave-party-saved-one-jew-from-terror-slaughter-during-the-horrific-invasion-from-gaza.html
- how-expressing-gratitude-to-hashem-sustained-an-older-woman-throughout-the-brutal-terrorist-attack-on-kibbutz-beeri.html