JERUSALEM — On the afternoon of October 7, while Hamas was torturing, killing and kidnapping Israelis near Gaza, dozens of women in my city east of Jerusalem gathered for a “slam” celebrating the holiday of Simchat Torah and the beginning of a new annual Torah-reading cycle.
Many of those who’d signed up to present one-minute synopses of the 54 weekly readings had already sent husbands and sons off to war in the previous hours.
