Adi Vital-Kaploun invited family to her house on Kibbutz Holit for Shabbat on Oct. 6, an Israeli community a few kilometres from Gaza and the Egyptian border.

It was Simchat Torah — a time for celebration on the Jewish calendar, marking the end of the Torah reading cycle, and rejoicing as the process begins anew. Though fall was approaching, the heat in southern Israel hadn’t let up. It still hit temperatures in the thirties despite the breeze coming off the Mediterranean.