This week the midrasha visited sites in the south where some of the attacks on Simchat Torah took place a year and a half ago. Amid the difficult stories, we also heard about incredible people who risked their lives to help others, and saw communities today living with great resilience.

We are a people who have been knocked down many times over our history, yet we have always known how to get back up, and how to respond to the challenge of the day.  This week, beginning the Book of Shemot, we meet Miriam, who through her formidable sense of faith both in Hashem and in her people, responded to crisis and single handedly changed the course of Jewish history. When her father Amram, a leader of the people, separated from Yoheved, refusing to bring more children into the world just to be drowned in the Nile by Pharaoh, other men began to act similarly. Miriam pleaded with her father. “Abba! Is it not enough that Pharoah wants to kill our boys? You are making a decree against the girls as well!”  Amram accepted his daughter’s impassioned words and returned to his wife. As a result, Moshe was born. Miriam, is not described by her name, but by the manner in which she acts. The Torah tells us, that later, she watched Batya, the daughter of Pharoah find her baby brother, and when asked, rushed to his mother who could help nurse him. The Torah says that she went “like a young woman” כעלמה – as in, with the strength of a strong young woman, and not like the little girl she was. The challenges we face in life, give us these opportunities not only to find the qualities we have within us, but also to maximise them beyond all expectations.


Miriam joins the long list of Jewish women who have kept the flame of the Jewish People burning, including Yehudit who kick started the Macabee revolt, and Queen Esther who put an end to Haman’s murderous plans. The list also includes Yael, the fearless young woman we met this week at Kibbutz Zikim, who since Simchat Torah, has dedicated her life to keeping her community safe, and now runs the Headquarters for the Kibbutz security team, and Avital and Amitai Schindler, survivors from the attacks on Simchat Torah in Kibbutz Kerem Shalom. The Schindler family endured untold trauma that day, yet Avital decides every day to raise her family with incredible emunah and simcha, and imbues her family and all of Am Yisrael with this strength!

Emunah, אמונה  ultimately draws its power from the word Em – אם meaning mother, and in many ways, means trying to live with the reality that we, on an individual and national level, are being raised through the challenges we encounter in life. But is there anything we  can do to strengthen ourselves for the road ahead?
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In Orot HaTorah, Rav Kook stresses that one way to bring out of ourselves our unique qualities, is to search out and find the kind of Torah which speaks to us the most. For one person, their soul is animated more by the study of midrash, while another feels more connected to halacha, philosophy or Hassidut. While it is of course important to have a good grounding in all of these things, Rav Kook says that when we strive to get in touch with our uniqueness in this way, the Torah begins to act as ‘a candle to light our path’, helping to strengthen the inner voice and conviction we each have, which is so critical to life and making good decisions at every stage of the way.  

Just as Miriam was connected enough to take a stand and act on what she felt and knew to be right, so to will our amazing students, at every stage in their lives. Each of us should be blessed to continue to find and connect to the wellsprings of Torah which speak personally to us. This way, the Torah can serve as a candle to help lead our way in life, to ensure that whatever knocks we take, we always have the ability to get back up and lead, whether it be for ourselves, our families, communities or our nation!