There have been a variety of inquiries and investigations into the reasons that Israel was so shockingly vulnerable to the unprecedented terrorist attack by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. The Israel Defense Forces, Shin Bet and independent groups have each researched and published their own findings. The government itself insists that an official National Commission of Inquiry will only take place after the war is over. This is being hotly debated throughout Israel with many voices calling for it to happen immediately and arguing that it is long overdue.
While different findings have emerged and some prominent IDF leaders have tendered their resignations, one thing that seems to be common to all the investigations is that Israel and all its security branches were caught napping. It would appear that there was an overall sense of complacency that had set in, and no one expected Hamas to be interested in or even capable of such a terrible invasion.
Believe it or not, this brings me directly to the Torah reading this Shabbat. We will conclude the Book of Exodus (Shemot) with Parshat Pikudei. In Ashkenazic communities, at the conclusion of each of the Five Books of Moses, when the Torah reader sounds the very last word in the book, the entire congregation rises and proclaims aloud Chazak, Chazak V’Nitchazek! “Be strong, be strong and we will all be strengthened.”
There are varying reasons advanced for this tradition some going back as far as the days of Joshua. Our Torah study can always do with some strengthening. Many of us would love to spend more time studying the deep repositories of Jewish wisdom, but not all of us excel at time management and we often think we “don’t have the time.” Communal encouragement can only be helpful to us.
Then, there is the encouragement it provides to the individual who was honored with being called to the Torah for the last aliyah in the book. Human nature is such that when we finish reading a book, we usually take a bit of a break before starting the next one. I suppose we feel the need to catch our breath a bit before moving on to our next volume.
But Torah is not just any book. Torah is nothing less than the wisdom of God. And Torah is our very source of life, as we recite nightly in our evening prayers, “For they [the words of Torah] are our life and the length of our days.” We can take a breather from reading novels, but can we take a break from life itself? So, when we finish an entire book of the Torah, we encourage the man at the bimah, and all of us to be strong and not falter, to not take a vacation from Torah but rather to have the strength to continue and open the very next book of Torah immediately.
And, indeed, we do. During the Shabbat afternoon Minchah service just a few hours later, we will read from Vayikra, “Leviticus,” the very next book of the Chumash. There is no break, no gap, no pause whatsoever in our study of the vitalizing words of Torah. We can have a rest from the latest bestsellers, but from the all-time, bestselling book in history, the Bible, there can be no break.
The message of Chazak is to not become complacent with what we have achieved. We must keep reading, keep learning, keep growing and keep getting stronger intellectually and spiritually. We cannot afford to lapse into complacency, self-pride and satisfaction with our achievements to date. Life and learning go together. As long as we are alive, we must continue learning with no sabbaticals from the study of God’s wisdom. Torah is the very breath of life. We dare not take a breather from breathing!
I am privileged to be the teacher of what is, arguably, the longest-running weekly Torah shiur, class, in South Africa. My Tuesday night Talmud class is now in its 38thuninterrupted year of study. Even during Covid, we continued learning on Zoom. In January, we concluded the long and often difficult book of Bava Metziya, all 119 double-sided pages. It deals with civil law, labor law, the rules of lost and found, usury and much more. We celebrated with a big siyum dinner, and my 25 students, and their wives, were deservedly proud of their significant achievement, especially considering that none of them had ever attended a yeshivah in their youth. The following week we immediately began a new book of the Talmud, Moed Katan, which covers work on Chol Hamoed, the intermediate days of Passover and Sukkot, laws of mourning, and more.
And our Sunday morning Mishnah shiur, just this week, concluded the book of Beitzah and the laws of Jewish holidays. This Sunday, please God, we will begin the book of Pesachim just in time for Pesach. There was no interruption between the conclusion of one book and the beginning of the next.
Every day brings a new challenge, a new opportunity and a new chapter in our lives. As long as we are breathing, the job is never done. May the Israel Defense Forces never lapse into complacency again, and may we all continue our upward advances in every area of our lives, please God, going from strength to strength.