Two years. 730 days. 17,500 hours. 1,051,200 minutes. How much can one achieve in two years? Two years can mean a degree earned, a job secured, countless hours spent with friends and family, and innumerable memories made. Lives can be changed in two years–for the better or for the worse.
The lives of Jewish and Israeli people took a turn for the worse two years ago. October 7th, 2025 and Simchat Torah 5786 mark two full years since the most devastating attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust. Two full years since terrorists flooded into the south of Israel and brought untold chaos and pain into the world. Jews and Israelis, who had until then been living in political turmoil, were confronted with indescribable tragedy.
Out of the 251 Israeli and foreign hostages taken by Hamas on October 7, 2023, 48 remain in Gaza, including 26 deceased individuals. The State of Israel has and continues to work tirelessly to bring them home, making deals and conducting covert operations to release them from their underground prison. Hamas’s doings are despicable; they are acts of unadulterated evil. But as long as even one innocent soul remains in Gaza, Jews around the world will pray and fight for its return. There is no rest for the Jewish nation until all 48 of these innocent souls come home. It is am echad, lev echad– one nation, one heart. Though the Simchat Torah Massacre is not the first tragedy that has befallen the Jewish people–nor will it be the last–it is a wake-up call. It is a reminder to unite, and in darkness, to turn on the light.
