Israel Approaches Hebrew Anniversary of October 7: Strength, and Pain

Israel will observe the first anniversary of the October 7 terror attack on Wednesday evening and Thursday, which is the 22nd of Tishrei on the Hebrew calendar, coinciding with the holidays of Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah.

Simchat Torah — literally, the “Happiness of the Torah” — is a holiday that marks the annual conclusion of the cycle of readings from Genesis to Deuteronomy. After the last verse is read, the scroll is rolled to the beginning, and the cycle begins anew.

Typically, the holiday is one of the happiest on the Jewish calendar, celebrated with singing, dancing, and no small amount of drinking. But this year, it is also the anniversary of the deaths of some 1,200 innocent souls.

The familiar, secular calendar, formalized by the Romans, is based on the sun. The Islamic calendar is based solely on the moon, which means each year is 11 days shorter than the secular calendar. That causes Muslim holidays to shift earlier each year.

The Hebrew calendar, by contrast, is both solar and lunar: the months are determined by the moon, but an additional month is added in leap years to keep the Jewish holidays falling in the same season, over time.

This year is a leap year, and so the Hebrew anniversary of October 7 is October 24. Because of religious restrictions assocaited with the Jewish holiday and to the Sabbath that follows it on Friday evening, the Israeli government is officially marking the anniversary of the October 7 terror attack on Saturday evening, October 26, and Sunday, October 27 (Jewish dates begin at sundown). Some ceremonies were also held on the secular date of October 7.

The contrast between the happiness of Simchat Torah and the pain of October 7 is particularly jarring, made only slightly less so by the fact that the anniversary of a death can be considered spiritually uplifting, in Jewish tradition.

There is significant consolation in the fact that Israel is in a much stronger position today than it was a year ago. Hamas has been smashed in Gaza; Hezbollah, which soon joined Hamas in attacking Israel last October, is being destroyed in Lebanon; and Israel has not only survived two waves of Iranian missile attacks, but is also preparing to retaliate against them.

However, the fact that 101 Israeli hostages still remain in Gaza means the war is far from over.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.