BY RABBI ARON WHITE

No place saw more destruction and death on October 7th than the Nova festival, where hundreds of people were murdered by Hamas. 9 months later, 150 survivors of the massacre gathered in Yerushalayim for a unique Shabbaton to unite and find healing. Rabbi Aron White joined for part of the Shabbat program.

 

On the morning of Simchat Torah, there were about 4,000 partiers at Re’im participating in the Nova festival. That day, 374 partiers and policemen were killed at the Nova by Hamas. Since then, survivors have attended various retreats and received other forms of therapeutic treatment – but none quite like a Shabbaton recently held in Yerushalayim for 150 of the survivors.

The Shabbaton was organized by Kesher Yehudi, an organization that works to bring unity between the Charedi community and wider Israeli society. In peacetime, the organization focuses on dialogue between Charedi and Chiloni students, but since the war it has shifted to organizing other events. From a tefillah evening in the first month of the war for 2,000 Charedi women to a Shabbaton for families of Israeli hostages, Kesher Yehudi, led by Mrs. Tzili Schneider, has brought inspiration to those most directly affected by the war.

The Shabbaton was a truly remarkable experience – including tefillot at the Kotel, a moving memorial ceremony, music led by Yonatan Razel and inspiration from Shuli Rand. The Shabbaton made a deep impression on the participants and also shed light on Israeli society as a whole. 

Remembrance

The slaughter at the Nova festival is the single worst terrorist attack in Israel’s history. On the night of October 6th, thousands of people gathered near Re’im, 5 kilometers from the Gaza border. The festival had been approved by the army only a few days before – there were senior IDF figures who thought it was too dangerous to have the event so close to Gaza. For a night, it was like a new town was set up in the area, much larger than any of the nearby kibbutzim, and with much less protection. 

Approximately 4,000 partiers attended the Nova festival. At 6:29 am, the first rockets were fired from Gaza, and the police shut down the party. By 7:00, the first Hamas terrorists arrived at the festival and on the surrounding roads, shooting at those heading out of the area. 374 civilians and policemen were murdered at the Nova festival, and 44 more were kidnapped by Hamas. Some hostages, such as Mia Shem, were freed in November in a hostage deal. Others, like Noa Argamani, were freed in rescue operations of the IDF. Others, such as Hersh Goldberg-Polin, remain in captivity at the time of writing. 

Since October, there have been many initiatives to support the survivors of the attack. In the initial days, therapeutic areas were set up for people to be able to walk in and receive various forms of emotional and psychological support. Various retreats, both in Israel and abroad, have been organized for the survivors. However, there is no official organization representing those who were at the Nova as there is for the families of hostages or for soldiers. The government provided support in the first few months, but this support has been reduced as time passed. Most of the programs that support Nova survivors are private initiatives, spread by word of mouth, like this Shabbaton in Yerushalayim.

The weekend started emotionally, with a memorial ceremony and tears of remembrance. Every one of the 150 Nova attendees on the Shabbaton knew people who were murdered that day, as well as people who are still held hostage. The program began with words of remembrance and then everyone lit a ner neshama, a memorial candle, to begin the proceedings. A number of people brought with them photos of those who had been killed. Some shared stories of heroism, such as the story of Eliakim Libman, who helped to save many lives on October 7th before he himself was killed. His death was only confirmed in May, 210 days after the attack. Often on a Shabbaton, it takes a few hours, or until seudah shlishit for it to reach an emotional peak. But this was no normal Shabbaton. Tears were flowing within 10 minutes of the start of the program. 

The uniqueness of the Shabbaton was also felt within the first few minutes. Kesher Yehudi is a Charedi organization, and so several volunteers at the Shabbaton were dressed as mainstream Charedim (albeit of the more open-minded variety). As the singing of Acheinu and Shir LaMa’alot began, women with tattoos stood shoulder-to-shoulder singing with women wearing sheitels. The week of the Shabbaton was the very week the Supreme Court ruled that yeshivot whose students did not serve in the army would not be eligible for government funding. Yet the images in the media of Charedim protesting the decision were a far cry from the images I saw at the David Citadel on this Shabbaton. 

Alongside the Nova attendees, the family of Agam Berger, one of the 5 female soldiers held hostage by Hamas, joined for the Shabbat. Agam’s mother Meirav has been a very vocal activist in Israel and around the world, and Agam’s father Shlomi spoke to the group before Shabbat. He said it was important for his family to join the group, to give them strength.

The group was also addressed by Shmuel Rieder from Monsey, who had sponsored the entire Shabbat, as well as Rabbi YY Jacobson. Both addressed the spiritual underpinnings of the event. “We are one family, and we share one soul, and connection through Hashem,” said Shmuel Rieder. “On a spiritual level, we share this essential unity that is inseparable,” said Rabbi Jacobson. 

Stories everywhere

After the memorial ceremony, the participants got ready for Shabbat, before a pre-Shabbat concert with Yonatan Razel. As the participants continued to arrive before Shabbat, one could see the full range of people who had been at the Nova. One woman, Eilat, was attending the Shabbaton with her 4 children. She had gone to the party with her husband Shai, and though she survived, he had been killed. Eilat hid in a tree for hours, repeatedly saying Shema as bullets flew around her. Her son, Gefen, 16, said kaddish for his father throughout Shabbat. Another attendee brought her two-month-old baby with her, who had been in utero during the attack. 

As we walked to the Kotel, survivors and participants shared stories. “A policeman told us to run towards the sun, as that way is east, away from Gaza,” one young man told me. “We tried to drive away, but Hamas terrorists were killing people on the road. We started to hear the gunshots getting closer, hearing the windows of nearby cars shattering. We got out of the car and ran for hours, until we got to Patish (about 12 kilometers from Re’im).” The serenity of the Mamilla mall, bathed in the golden glow of the setting sun, stood in stark contrast to the stories of horror that were bubbling up for the participants as they spoke with each other. “A whole group of people crept out just before us, so Hamas didn’t come to check for more people,” said one woman. “I am just glad my parents didn’t know I was there,” said another young man, “so the first they heard from me was when I called from my friend’s house in Be’er Sheva.”

When the music started

As befitting a Shabbaton for those who had been at the Nova festival, music played a central role in the Shabbaton. Yonatan Razel ran a pre-Shabbat kumzitz, with the sounds of Am Yisrael Chai resounding through the hotel. As we walked to the Kotel, the group started singing the Chassidic style favorite, Machshavot Tovot, Diburim Tovim. At the Shabbat meal, from Shalom Aleichem to Shabechi Yerushalayim, there was singing throughout. Yonatan Razel framed the singing in a beautiful way at the beginning of Shabbat. “When music met electricity, it conquered the world. We can now bring music to tens of thousands of people at a time, to our cars, to our phones – everywhere. Music can move, it can take us to new places. And on this Shabbat, we are going to use music to heal and comfort.” At the Shabbat seuda, we danced together singing “Hakadosh Baruch Hu, Anachnu Ohavim Otcha,” and I couldn’t stop thinking about the popular refrain of the Nova survivors – “We will dance again.”

After the Shabbat meal, there was what I can only describe as the most unique tisch I have ever attended, led by Shuli Rand and Tzufit Grant, a unique husband and wife duo. Shuli Rand is a movie director, actor and singer who was chozer biTeshuva through Breslov Chassidut. Tzufit Grant, also an actress and TV personality, describes herself as shomeret Shabbat and has moved towards a religiously observant lifestyle. They sat at the head of the dais, offering words of perspective and inspiration, to the 200 people in the room.

“Rav Nachman would tell his students that following a crisis, we can choose to go to our corners and get lost in our feelings of guilt and victimhood, or we can join together, and choose to get through it together. That is what you are all doing by being here on this Shabbat,” Shuli said. If the origin of a tisch was when those broken by life came to seek spiritual guidance and support, then this was the truest form of that. 

Shuli went on to offer perspective based on the concept of bechira. “We do not choose, and we do not understand why tragedies like this happen. But we do have a choice about how we will respond, how we will heal, and what light we look to bring to the world after.” After his words, we began singing Ayeka – a deeply personal song, written by Shuli as an open discussion with Hashem about searching for Him in this world. Tzufit Grant then shared some of her journey, and the transformative impact of Shabbat in her life. 

Sitting at a tisch, hearing Breslov Torah from Israeli TV personalities, singing one of their deeply spiritual songs together with partiers who had been at the Nova, was an “only in Israel” moment I will never forget. 

Takeaways

The most important feature of the Shabbat was the comfort that it brought to the Nova survivors. “I like events like this, just being together with other people who went through the same thing,” said Shimon, who lives in Yerushalayim and works as a security guard. “Often, people don’t really know how to treat me, and sometimes go too far, wrapping me in cotton wool. I want to be normal and move on, and just being around other people who get it is comforting.” For others, the religious and spiritual nature of the Shabbat was particularly meaningful. “Coming to Yerushalayim, going to the Kotel for Friday night, it fills up your soul,” said Eran from Haifa. “When you see all the thousands of Jews together there, it just makes you go ‘wow.’” Participants from previous Kesher Yehudi Shabbatonim in this war talked about how observing a halachic Shabbat itself was something meaningful and impactful. “Since the war started, I have been on my phone non-stop,” said one of the family members of a hostage, who attended a Shabbaton in February. “For the first time, on this Shabbat I wasn’t on my phone for 24 hours. Shabbat allowed me to be a person again.”

But there was much about the Shabbaton that speaks to deeper messages that apply more broadly to Israel and the Jewish people.

Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch comments on the verse “Olam chessed yibaneh, the world is built on kindness,” that the natural world is full of interlocking, mutually interdependent relationships. Ecosystems are made up of hundreds and thousands of organisms, all of whom contribute something to the system, and receive something in return. Our world is built on kindness – everything in the system is giving something to the system.

I thought about this verse as I took in this Shabbaton, and how and what everyone was contributing. A family from thousands of miles away, sponsoring a Shabbat to bring comfort and inspiration to those affected by crisis. Survivors of the Nova tragedy, joining to pray for those held in captivity today. The family of a hostage, coming to give inspiration to the survivors. In this mutual web of giving, it becomes unclear who is the one giving inspiration and who is receiving it. We are caught in a system of constant giving, with everyone wanting to give something, anything. Isn’t this a microcosm of what the Jewish world has experienced for the last 10 months? From the soldiers, to the missions, to the donations, haven’t we all been in a quite remarkable ecosystem of chessed, with everyone looking to give something to the greater Jewish collective? War, unfortunately, has been a feature of humanity for as long as history. The outpouring of chessed and support from people around the country and thousands of miles away is not a feature, but an absolutely remarkable outlier. 

Secondly, and more importantly, the Shabbaton highlighted the significant role Judaism plays in Israeli society. While religion is often viewed as a divisive issue in the public sphere, particularly regarding contentious topics like the draft of Charedim and the settlements in Yehuda and Shomron, Judaism is actually a unifying force. This Shabbaton exemplified that. Songs such as Shalom Aleichem, Shir HaMa’alot, and Anachnu Ma’aminim were sung effortlessly, requiring no instruction. Similarly, traditions like lighting Shabbat candles and giving a Shabbat blessing were naturally observed. The teachings of Rav Nachman resonated deeply, feeling authentic and fitting seamlessly into the experience.

We often categorize people’s Jewish engagement based on their halachic observance, and by these traditional standards, the attendees of the Nova festival might not be considered halachically observant. However, they embrace Judaism as a tradition and a source of spirituality and inspiration in a very natural way. The Shabbaton was not about kiruv (outreach), as there was no need to teach or introduce anything new. It was simply a gathering of Jews with different lifestyles, coming together to celebrate what they share. The name Kesher Yehudi perfectly encapsulates this deeper truth. Judaism has the power to unite us. While political issues are important and must be addressed, they do not define the entirety of what Judaism means in Israel. During this Shabbat, Jewish songs, traditions, and ideas provided a genuine sense of comfort and unity.