Dear hostages: thank you 

The hostages are home. Their nightmare is finally over.

Right before Simchat Torah, as I was getting ready to watch our dear brothers, the hostages who survived this unimaginable ordeal, reunite with their families, I found myself watching video clips of other hostages who returned months ago.

I was amazed by their courage. I was in awe of their inner strength.

And that’s when I realized how, in my mind, we did a lot for the hostages: we prayed, we did mitzvot, we raised awareness of their plight. But in truth, more than what we did for the hostages, they did for us.

They came back with faith that we never knew existed. They inspired us with incredible stories of finding G-d in the darkest place on earth, in the Gaza terror tunnels.

One of the clips I watched was of Omer Shemtov, who spent more than 500 days in captivity.

“One day, I found a card that was left by an IDF soldier,” he said. “It contained Chapter 20 of Psalms. I started saying it every day. And at the same time, my mother did just the same! She chose this chapter to pray for me. And I felt her prayer.

“I also felt her Shabbat candle lighting; it was a feeling of warmth in my chest, knowing that someone cares for me.”

His words took me back two years, to October 7, 2023.

On that infamous day, we gathered at our Chabad House as we do on Simchat Torah to do hakafot and dance with the Torah, but none of us was in the mood for dancing. The horrendous reports kept coming fast and furious. How can we celebrate on such a day? We didn’t know.

There was no question in my mind that we were going to do hakafot, just like Jews always did, even in the worst of times. But what can I share to help our dear community members experience Simchat Torah, even just a little bit?

Thinking about the rebbe’s constant message of the power of each mitzvah, I said, while choking with tears:

“My friends, our brothers and sisters in Israel are in a horrific situation. They need us now more than ever. The Torah teaches us about the power of a mitzvah. Let’s dance now, because our mitzvos and our joy will send them protection and blessings.”

That night, we danced. Not as if nothing happened, but because so much happened.

It wasn’t easy, but the story of Omer, this brave hostage, sharing how he felt all the prayers and the mitzvot, made it all feel so real. I knew we did the right thing back then.

Thank G-d, the hostages are back. But we should never forget them or forget the lessons they taught us. Our faith and our mitzvos have tremendous positive power. And the world needs this positive power:  Our brothers and sisters in the Holy Land need it, Jews all over the world need it, the whole world needs it.

Let’s keep on doing mitzvot, and let’s keep on dancing, because as the hostages taught us, no one can stop us from being proud Jews.

Rabbi Mendy Kaminker is the rabbi of Chabad of Hackensack and an editorial member of Chabad.org. He looks forward to your comments at rabbi@chabadhackensack.com.