One woman with type O blood searches online for communities in need of her blood type as the line outside of Dizengoff Center was full of volunteers waiting for hours to donate. Another offers translation services to new immigrants who don’t know much Hebrew. Another asks for volunteers to help pack and sort donations for people who need critical supplies like pacifiers and baby formula.
These were only a few posts on social networks in Tel Aviv where citizens rallied together as the nation faced the aftermath of what many are calling the darkest day in Israeli history.
With more than 100 Israelis held hostage in Gaza, more than 700 dead and over 2,200 wounded, the country is in a state of shock—however, that hasn’t stopped many from stepping up to the plate and helping those in need.
Rabbi Chaim Tveria, who directs Chabad of Florentin with his wife, Ofra, in the trendy south Tel Aviv neighborhood, provided spiritual and moral support for neighborhood residents, including a family whose home on Abarbanel Street was hit by shrapnel from a rocket attack. On Shabbat, he brought the family—who asked to remain anonymous—wine, challot and food so they could still observe the holiday of Simchat Torah.
On Sunday, he set up a tefillin stand for the community outside the Chabad House where he offered to help residents do the mitzvah. That morning, some 20 men waited patiently to don tefillin and say their morning prayers inside.
“My job here is to provide moral and spiritual activation,” Tveria told Chabad.org. “What we’ve seen in Tel Aviv in the past 24 hours has been fear and trauma. That’s when you need this kind of support the most.”
For Rabbi Yosef Gerlitzky, director of Chabad of Tel Aviv, he saw the jubilation of Simchat Torah turn into that exact sense of fear before his eyes.
Friday night was marked by the traditional joyful celebration of hakafot that carried on well into Saturday morning.
“Friday night, we had hundreds of people take part in hakafot; we didn’t know what was to come,” he said.
When participants heard the siren, many of them still chose to go to synagogue and feared that there wouldn’t be a minyan. Yet at least 50 people attended.
“We had a big kiddush and prayed for the soldiers of the IDF, and we prayed for a swift resolution,” he added.
Naturally, there were disruptions. A chazzan from Long Island, N.Y., visiting his kids living in Tel Aviv was at the bimah when he heard his brother was being called up for reserve duty. He immediately left the synagogue so he could speak to his brother before his departure.
Slowly, stories of the horrors that unfolded began to infiltrate the synagogue. Instead, the community chose to focus on the joyful stories of Simchat Torah instead.
“We recalled stories of the Yom Kippur war, where we heard the words of the
Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, of righteous memory—who told the people that simchas like Sukkot and Simchat Torah sweeten the harsh judgments. In other words, if we focus on the good in times of chaos it will overcome the bad. He encouraged communities to daven with simcha despite the devastation around us,” he said.
As such, the community continued to pray until the early hours of Sunday morning.
Gerlitzy looks back on the community’s resilience with pride, especially considering the past months when political strife threatened to tear the country apart.
“We want blessings from G‑d when we’re all together as one. We must take into consideration that our enemies see what is happening and that elevates their motivation to do what they did,” he said. “It weakens the IDF and gives them motivation to act against the Jewish people. We must think twice before we engage in sinat Yissrael (hatred of one’s fellow Jews). With ahavat Yisrael (‘love of one’s fellows’), this can still be corrected.”
Even though most Tel Aviv residents identify as secular and about 15 percent traditional, he says he’s not surprised to see the turnout this weekend as Chabad tends to be the obvious place for Jews to turn to in times of need regardless of their level of observance.
“When people need something spiritual, Chabad is the first place they go to,” he said.
This article was written and published after the conclusion of Yom Tov in Israel.
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