October 7. A date which will live in infamy. On our family chat recently, my son, Rabbi Ari Schonfeld, principal of Yeshiva Ketana of Manhattan, posted that he is on a chat with fellow mechanchim (yeshivah educators) who were debating if and how to commemorate the horrors that befell our people in Israel on that awful day last year.
No one was denying the immensity of the tragedy for the Jewish people almost one year ago. The issue discussed was: Should it be formally commemorated in a yeshivah? If so, what format? What date should be used? The Hebrew date, which in chutz laAretz was not Simchas Torah but Sh’mini Atzeres? Should the day be perpetuated on the Jewish calendar? The safe way out for yeshivos is to ignore it and let each student or community decide for themselves how to mark the date. Yeshivos can punt by pointing to the date of Sh’mini Atzeres, perforce yeshivos cannot be involved in any school-based commemoration on that day. But what about October 7? That day falls out this year during the week, the day after the Fast of Gedalia. Should something be done then?
Is it a “frum” thing to make formal commemorations? How many yeshivish/ chasidish institutions commemorate Yom HaShoah or Kristallnacht? Yet Americans take the date of 9/11 very seriously. (True, if they make it into an official holiday, it will turn into a day of picnics and doubleheaders.)
The religious reason for the resistance to declaring official days of mourning is based on the 25th Kinah composed for the massacres that befell the Jewish communities of Germany during the First Crusade. The author, toward the end of that elegy, bemoans the fact that “…we cannot add a new day of mourning over ruin and conflagration… Instead, today (on Tish’ah B’Av)…” In other words, outside of the date designated by prophets and the Chazal, we may not add official dates of mourning to the Jewish calendar, according to many poskim. Thus remains the dilemma of what to do about 10/7 or Sh’mini Atzeres.
I suggested to my son that, no matter how they decide, it is not a date to be ignored. The Rambam states (Hilchos Taanis 1:3) that to ignore the significance of troubling events is “the way of cruelty.” I believe that to resolve the halachic and hashkafic issues with using the Jewish calendar to commemorate a day of mourning, the easiest approach would be to make the commemoration on October 7. Explain to the students that the reason we are not using the Hebrew date, aside from the practical issues, is precisely because it is a quandary in halachah. That should cover all bases.
Of course, some hardliners may contend that it’s just not right to do anything formal, no matter the date. To that, I suggest they follow the example of the late great principal of the Bais Yaakov Academy of Queens, Rabbi Moshe Neuman zt”l.
A beautifully done book was just published by ArtScroll on Rabbi Neuman’s legacy. Right now, I don’t have access to the book, as I cannot tear it away from my wife, a teacher in the Bais Yaakov for about 30 years and one of Rabbi Neuman’s ardent admirers.
But I do know that when Rabbi Neuman decided to institute something in the Bais Yaakov, controversial or not, he just did it: because he felt it was the right thing to do.
He managed a way to celebrate Yom HaAtzmaut in way acceptable to all. He made sure the school taught about Thanksgiving as it did about Mother’s Day. He did not allow all the static to distract him. And no one ever questioned him. He did what he knew was right.
As I completed this article, my son forwarded to me a letter he sent to the parent body of YKOM. The letter recalls the tragedy of that day and the need to continue to daven for the Israeli soldiers and the hostages. The letter concludes by advising the parents that his yeshivah will be arranging a special commemoration program on October 7 with details to be announced.
It is obligatory to commemorate October 7. Any principal who is principled will figure out how.
Rabbi Yoel Schonfeld is the Rabbi Emeritus of the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills, President of the Coalition for Jewish Values, former President of the Vaad Harabonim of Queens, and the Rabbinic Consultant for the Queens Jewish Link.
