What an extraordinary holiday we have just experienced.
There is something about the power of Simchat Torah in our community at the Chabad synagogue in Rehavia-Shaarei Chesed, Jerusalem, that is almost impossible to put into words. The joy and sense of unity that continue for hours seem to break through every boundary and rise all the way to heaven.
But one moment during last night’s hakafot was especially moving-even by the standards of our community.
This year, we were privileged to have the active participation of my good friend, the legendary Walter Bingham, who will turn 103 in a few months. Walter took part in the Normandy invasion as a British soldier and helped in the liberation of Europe from Nazi Germany. Thankfully, he remains active and remarkably fit. May he enjoy good health until 120 and beyond.
Suddenly, completely spontaneously, I saw Walter dancing with a young child from our community. It was a joyous sight: two Jews dancing together with nearly 100 years between them.
In that moment, the Torah became a shared bond that transcended age, opinions and outlooks. Everyone gathered to dance and celebrate Jewish identity in its most elemental form.
A man who fought the Nazis and witnessed so much in his lifetime found himself dancing in the same circle with children whose parents he could be old enough to be the great-grandfather of.
The experience reached its peak when I stood beneath the tallit alongside Walter and dozens of children for the traditional “Kol HaNe’arim" aliyah - a moment he had specifically requested. It felt like an experience of eternal togetherness, connecting generations across thousands of years.
Walter also shared memories of Simchat Torah from his youth. He left Germany in 1939 at age 15 on the famous Kindertransport, and recalled that by the early 1930s, celebrations in his hometown of Mannheim had already been pushed almost underground. What had once been a proud, public expression of Jewish joy had become something celebrated quietly, out of fear.
That fear left a lasting wound. Walter told me how deeply he regrets having almost no memories of celebrating Simchat Torah with his beloved father, who was murdered by the Nazis in 1941.
And now, nearly 90 years later, here in Israel, Walter was dancing with children and standing beneath the tallit among them for “Kol HaNe’arim." There was something profound about seeing a man whose youth had been marked by Nazi persecution celebrating Jewish life so freely in Jerusalem.
The timing made the moment even more powerful. This year’s Simchat Torah came three years after the horrific massacre of Simchat Torah 5784, the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust.
Walter’s memories of Nazi Germany, set against the joy radiating from him in Jerusalem, gave new meaning to the timeless words of the Haggadah: “And it is this that has stood by our fathers and us."
May we continue to have reasons to celebrate, dance and rejoice without end.
Wishing everyone a healthy and peaceful winter.
The author is a lecturer in philosophy and Jewish history.