Three years ago, Simchat Torah changed forever.

On the morning of Oct. 7, 2023, as Jews across Israel were preparing to celebrate the completion of the annual Torah-reading cycle, Hamas terrorists poured in from the Gaza Strip, murdering 1,200 Israelis and taking 251 others hostage.

Suddenly, a holiday associated with dancing became one of slaughter.

For many Jews, that has made Simchat Torah one of the most emotionally complicated days on the calendar. How do you dance on the anniversary of a massacre? How do you sing when the date itself summons memories of young people hunted down at the Nova music festival, families murdered in their homes and communities along the Gaza border overrun?

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The Haftorah for Shemini Atzeret (1 Kings 8:54-66) takes us back nearly three thousand years to the dedication of the First Temple in Jerusalem.

The account opens as King Solomon rises "from before the altar of the Lord, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread toward heaven" (I Kings 8:54). He turns to the assembled nation and blesses them, thanking Hashem for fulfilling His promises to Israel.

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For the first time since Oct. 7, 2023, Israelis will enter Sukkot knowing that not a single hostage, living or dead, remains in Gaza.

A year ago, the picture was very different. Last Sukkot began with 20 living hostages still being held by Hamas. Their photographs hung from sukkah walls, while empty chairs symbolized the Jews who could not sit with their own families.

Then, on Hoshana Raba, October 13, 2025, all 20 were finally released and returned to Israel.

But even then, the ordeal was not entirely over. The bodies of several murdered hostages remained in Gaza.

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Few holidays display the extraordinary variety of Jewish life quite like Sukkot.

The basic requirements are the same whether a sukkah stands in Jerusalem, New York, Casablanca or Samarkand. Jews dwell in a temporary structure and take the "Four Species" or "Four Kinds" prescribed by the Torah.

But over the centuries, communities around the world added their own touches, drawing on the plants, flowers, foods, and decorative traditions of the places where they lived. The result is a remarkable collection of Sukkot customs, many of which survived migrations, upheavals and the disappearance of the communities that created them.

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In 2011, Thailand's Princess Chulabhorn visited Jerusalem to discuss scientific cooperation, including cancer and brain research. A scientist with a doctorate in chemistry, she had professional reasons for making the journey. But during a meeting, she expressed something more personal.

"In my heart I feel half-Israeli," she declared. "I think like an Israeli." She even added the Israeli name Tzila to her signature in the presidential guest book.

The warmth was striking. So was the setting. For centuries, Jews had traveled to Thailand to trade, earn a living and sometimes escape persecution. Now a Thai princess was seeking scientific partners in a Jewish country.

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