I agreed to write this Word Prompt weeks ago, but when I got the reminder this week, I wondered how I could possibly write about anything so mundane when we are enduring something so intense here in Israel. These days, I throw whatever on my head each morning and organize Zoom school for my students. What do I have to say about sheitels? And then I realized that actually my sheitel carries a very deep meaning for me at this time.
On Simchat Torah morning, I woke up to rockets and ran down to the bomb shelter with my kids with a scarf hastily thrown on my head. With racing hearts, we went up and down to the shelter every couple of minutes as we bemoaned that Hamas had intentionally stolen Simchat Torah from us. At a short lull, I tore upstairs to put on a new Yom Tov dress and yes, my sheitel. I told myself that even if I was spending my entire day in a bomb shelter, this was going to be my way of not letting Hamas take away our Shabbat and Yom Tov.
Less than a week later, I reached for the dress and sheitel that I wore on that horrific Simchat Torah and I wore them to the wedding of one of my teachers as she embarked on building a new home in Am Yisrael. My heart was shattered but my dress and sheitel had become a symbol of resilience and now reminded me of the power of celebrating Jewish renewal.
May we be blessed to wear sheitels (hats or scarves) to celebrate only happy occasions.
