October 7 Took Everything From Them — But Not This - Rabbi Shlomo Landau

The golden sky above us burning. We dream of better >> I woke up very early this morning as I try to do every day. And I didn't think about the fact that it's October 7th. I didn't think about it at all. I go to shul. I usually learn with a chavrusah. He wasn't there today. So, I decided I want to learn something else. I take the safer Mayan Base Hasheveva from Reb Shimon Schwab off the shelf. I open it up and I begin to go through his peirush on parshas Bereishis. And I come across an understanding that jolts me. He asks the most basic question. We know that Hashem creates man. Vayipach be'apav nishmas chayim. Hashem blows into Adam's nostrils a soul of life. Says the Targum, what is nishmas chayim, a soul of life? Ruach memallelah. The ability to speak. Says Reb Shimon Schwab, why does Adam need the ability to speak at that point? He's alone. He is the only person in the world. He has no one to speak to. Says Reb Shimon Schwab something surprising. He says, we need to understand. We think that our power of communication, the ability to speak, is to communicate with others. But at its deepest core, it's actually to communicate to Hashem. And Adam needed that because the world was not full of green and vegetation when it was created. Adam needed to pray, to daven as Rashi says. He asks and all of a sudden Hashem makes it rain and the world becomes the most beautiful and magnificent place. That means if you strip away a human being and take away everything from around them, and you leave them alone, they still need to talk because they need to talk to Hashem. And all of a sudden, I start thinking about Omer Shamto and Elia Corn and the other hostages who for months and years were in solitary confinement. And when they were freed, they told the world that they would talk to Hashem and talk to him often. They would begin every morning saying good morning to Hashem, thanking Hashem for the ability to breathe, thanking Hashem for the fact that they were still alive, asking Hashem to protect their loved ones if they were still alive. And they talked to Hashem all the time, morning, afternoon, and night. Because when you take everything away from a human being, and all they have left is themself, they still continue to talk, to communicate. Maybe not to the world around them, but in their rawest self. They turn upwards and they talk to Hashem. It's October 7th today. Zachor et asher asah l'cha Amalek. We will never forget, but we also won't forget who we are. We are the communicators, we are the medabrim, we're Yisrael, the people that could talk to Hashem, no matter what happens. >> We will dance again.