In the Media

Australian Jewish News – 3 October 2025

There’s a statement of the great Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard that speaks to me so deeply at this time of the year on our Jewish calendar “It takes moral courage to grieve; it requires religious courage to rejoice”.

I understand it to mean that confronting pain and sorrow with honest realism demands ethical strength (moral courage), while experiencing joy, especially in the face of hardship requires an even stronger fortitude (religious courage). It highlights two distinct forms of courage, one focused on facing suffering and the other on embracing life’s positive aspects through a religious lens.

Our history is saturated in suffering. So much to grieve about, so many to mourn for. Our religion recognises the sorrows of our past and the precarious evanescence of our present. At times it feels like we are a grieving faith, a nation of the bereaved. We have days dedicated to lamenting our losses such as the fast of the Ninth of Av, Yom HaShoah and Yom HaZikaron. Our holiest days are punctuated by the memorial service or Yizkor.

So much to be sad about and in the shadow of the agony of the Holocaust, the pall of October 7 has enshrouded  us.

Yet for all this, we have days of almost riotous celebration like Purim and Simchat Torah. The word for joy, Simcha, is a motif of our regular prayers; a repeated reminder in the book of Deuteronomy by Moses in his final words to his people; and it is indeed the leitmotif of the Sukkot festival. It is our season of joy and happiness and was one of the most wondrous of celebrations at the time when the Temples stood in Jerusalem.

Since October 7 2023 coincided with Simchat Torah, this happiest of days, it is tempting to discard the celebration and sit heavily with the devastation. After all, the war continues, the losses are unabated, the hostages are still dreadfully incarcerated.

How can I feel so good when everything around me is so bad?

It is however, precisely on this festival with its tangible reminders of the vulnerability of life – the Sukkah is the most transient and fragile of our religious structures – that we celebrate with passion. It is on this holiday that we read the Book of Ecclesiastes or Kohelet ,not because of it’s sad and troubling words of anguish, but rather because of its reminder of the joy and meaning we can find despite the darkness.

Research on happiness will tell you that there are three essential ingredients to being satisfied with life: a strong relationship, a sense of purpose and being financially secure. Kohelet which is traditionally attributed to King Solomon knows all about financial security but emphasises that joy defeats death that relationships redeem life and that finding meaning is the essence of happiness. Seek joy, says Solomon in your work and in your marriage, in your daily pleasures and in your youth. “The sleep of a worker is Sweet… Find life with the woman you love…”

There were Jews in the concentration camps who somehow found a way of celebrating Simchat Torah sometimes by lifting up a young child and dancing with him on their shoulders saying he was the living Torah. There are Jews in Israel today who are finding ways of celebrating their smachot with energy and hope. There are Jews across Australia who are defying despair. We are a nation deeply invested with the moral courage to face our challenges and passionately committed to finding the spiritual courage to rejoice.

So, this Sukkot, lets find the bravery to celebrate in the midst of uncertainty and let our voices of joy carry into ‘the cities of Judah, the courtyards of Jerusalem’, the streets of Caulfield, the beaches of Bondi and beyond.