Welcome to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what’s happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

In this special Simhat Torah holiday episode, host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaks with Rabbi Avi Poupko, who is currently serving in reserve duty as part of the IDF rabbinate along the northern border.

Simhat Torah is an annual celebration of the completion — and restarting — of the Shabbat Torah-reading cycle. Usually a day of joyous prayer, singing and dancing, the observance of this holiday is forever intertwined with last year’s Hamas massacre of 1,200 people and the hostage-taking of another 251 to Gaza.

Poupko talks about observing the Sukkot holiday while listening to rocket fire overhead and gives historical context to how Jews have always adapted to tragedy and carried on “doing Jewish.”

For news updates, please check out The Times of Israel’s ongoing live blog.

How Israeli Jews face the Simhat Torah holiday, forever marred by Oct. 7 massacre

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