There is one day each year when the Jewish people gather in the Synagogue and neither prayer nor Torah study is our primary focus.

Simchas Torah is the holiday established to hold the Torah scrolls close to our hearts and dance in song, circling the Bimah as we celebrate our heritage with unbridled joy.

It was this day that our enemies chose to unleash their terror on our brothers and sisters across Israel. In so choosing, they sought to extinguish our joy of Torah. They hoped to destroy our holiday and reshape it into a day of grief.

They failed to comprehend Jewish perseverance. They mistook our love of peace for meekness, ignoring our ability to fight back. They forgot about the Maccabees.

The Jewish people's love for each other, our devotion to our Torah, our passion for tradition, our embrace of humanity, and our appreciation of life, is supernaturally resilient.

We hurt, we mourn, but we don't back down, we don't surrender. We are Maccabees; we dig deep, we stand tall, and we ensure that tomorrow is brighter than today.

The soldiers of the IDF are our modern day Maccabees who, like the Maccabees of Chanukah fame, put their bodies and lives on the line in the battle of light versus darkness, fighting for our people's eternity. The greatest blessing for them is to see that their sacrifice has brought life and light to their people.

With the incredible vision and support of Richard and Glenna Tanenbaum, Oklahoma City is blessed to have commissioned the writing of the Maccabee Torah, honoring our front-line modern day Maccabees, the brave men and women of the IDF. The Maccabee Torah project will give birth to a new Torah Scroll, the symbol of Jewish strength, unity, and celebration.

It will be small in size and powerful in impact, enabling even the very young and the very old to dance with it on Simchas Torah sending a message to the world: the sacrifice of the modern day Maccabee helps solidify Jewish pride, observance, and joy even in the buckle of the Bible Belt!

We invite you to be part of history and partake in this monumental Mitzvah by dedicating and owning a letter, a word, or a portion of the Torah. This will surely bring blessings to those on the front lines, shower your family with the light of Torah, and act as an eternal reminder that our Simchas Torah—our joy of Torah—will never be diminished.

The light of Torah will always shine, today and forever.