Weekly Dvar Torah: A New Beginning

The Holy Days have ended, the Sukkahs have come down, the melodies of joy still echo in the air — and we stand once again at a new beginning. After the awe and renewal of Tishrei, the Jewish heart steps into a new year brimming with faith, gratitude, and hope. But this year, the words “new beginning” carry deeper meaning than ever before.

For two years, the cry “Bring them home!” reverberated through Jewish hearts across the world. And now, incredibly, miraculously, on the eve of the very same holy day they were taken — on Simchas Torah — the last living hostages were brought home. The day that had become a symbol of unspeakable horror, the black wound of October 7th, has been transformed into a day of redemption and light. The same nation that wept on Simchas Torah two years ago danced this year with tears of joy. The same people who trembled in anguish now trembled in ecstasy, embracing life, Torah, and one another.

It was as though Heaven itself declared: The story is not over. I, G-d, will write the next chapter.

Our Rebbeim teach that the month of Tishrei, called Chodesh HaShvi’i — the seventh month — carries multiple layers of meaning.

1. Shvi’i as in “seventh,” the number of holiness and completeness.
2. Shvi’i from sova, meaning “satiation” — we are filled and nourished with blessing.
3. Shvi’i from shevuah, meaning “oath” or empowerment — Hashem endows us with strength for the year ahead.

In Tishrei, we live through the full cycle of the Jewish experience: awe, forgiveness, joy, unity. We crown Hashem as King on Rosh Hashanah, reconnect through Teshuvah in the Ten Days of Repentance, reach the pinnacle of oneness on Yom Kippur, and then dwell with Him in the Sukkah — the home of Divine embrace and joy.

And finally comes Simchas Torah, the day of pure celebration. We dance not for miracles, not for harvest, not for personal gain — but simply because we are Jews, bound to the Torah, bound to Hashem. We complete the Torah and immediately begin anew, because a Jew’s relationship with the Torah never ends; it only renews.

This year, Simchas Torah was not only about dancing with the Torah — it was about dancing with life itself. It was the song of a people who refuse to surrender to despair, who find joy again and again — because our Torah teaches us to begin again, Bereishis bara Elokim, “In the beginning, G-d created the heavens and the earth.”

Rashi opens the Torah with a question that has echoed for nearly a thousand years:
Why does the Torah, a book of Divine commandments, begin with the story of Creation instead of with the first Mitzvah?

His answer, quoting the verse from Tehillim — “The strength of His actions He told to His people so as to give them the inherited land of the nations” — is breathtakingly relevant today. Rashi explains that G-d begins with Creation to establish His ownership of the world. So that when the nations of the world accuse the Jewish people of stealing the Land of Israel, we can answer with confidence: “The entire earth belongs to the Holy One, blessed be He. He created it, and He gives it to whomever He chooses. He gave it to them, and He took it from them, and gave it to us.”

Was Rashi sitting in the halls of the United Nations when he wrote these words? Did he foresee the chants of “From the river to the sea,” or the grotesque hypocrisy of nations condemning Israel’s defense against murderers? It seems as if Rashi is speaking directly to our generation — to Jewish children growing up in a world that questions their very right to exist in their own land.

The Torah’s opening verse is G-d’s eternal declaration: “The world is Mine — and I have given this land to My people.”

And so, as we start the Torah anew, we are reminded that we need not cower before the verdicts of the nations. Our borders are not drawn by bureaucrats in Brussels or delegates in the UN. They were drawn by the One Who created the heavens and the earth.

It is striking that the redemption of the hostages came precisely two years after their capture. In Torah, “two years” is not a random number — it is the rhythm of Divine release.

Yosef languished in prison in Egypt, forgotten, until two years were completed — then his redemption came. The famine decreed for seven years ended after two. Even after the Great Flood, two years marked the world’s renewal.

Perhaps G-d has woven a hidden thread of mercy into this measure of time. Pain may have its appointed hour, but so too does redemption. When two years are up, the Heavenly gates open. The time of darkness expires, and the dawn must break.

One of the hostages testified that during captivity, he found a copy of Dvar Malchus — the Rebbe’s Torah study booklet — left behind by an Israeli soldier. The section he found was the Parsha of Mikeitz, describing Yosef’s release after two years of imprisonment. He said that this gave him strength — the belief that G-d would surely redeem him, too. And so it was.

Even the timing of the miracle carries a message. The secular calendar marked the second anniversary of October 7th a full week before Simchas Torah. Yet the redemption did not occur on October 7th — it occurred on the eve of Simchas Torah. Because the true calendar, the real measure of destiny, is not the Gregorian one — it is the Jewish one. It is the divine rhythm of sacred time.

Hashem chose His own day for redemption, not man’s. On the very festival when we finish the Torah and begin again, the story of our people also turned a new page.

The message of this moment is clear and powerful: We are a people who turn sorrow into song. We are a nation that knows how to rise from the ashes of tragedy with renewed faith and joy.

The same month that carries the pain of October 7th also carries the joy of Simchas Torah — and G-d Himself has shown us that the joy prevails. Chodesh HaShvi’i — the month of satiation and empowerment — fills us with spiritual abundance and gives us the strength to begin again, without compromise or fear.

We dance because we believe. We celebrate because our faith is unbreakable. And we begin again because G-d Himself begins again with us — every year, every Shabbos, every morning.

So as we open the Torah and read Bereishis bara Elokim, let us also open our hearts. Let us trust in the Creator of heaven and earth who guides His world with precision and compassion. Let us look at our nation, reunited and resilient, and whisper a prayer of gratitude for the miracles we have witnessed.

The story of our people is the story of beginnings — again and again and again.

Have a fresh and happy New Beginning of a Shabbos,
Gut Shabbos

Rabbi Yosef Katzman