'Dark Clouds Above, Faith Below': How Oct. 7 impacted Jewish identity - review

Immediately after Oct. 7, we all needed a way to reflect and process the enormity of the day’s events. Rabbi Moshe Taragin, an educator on the staff of Yeshivat Har Etzion/Gush, began writing and publishing essays as a way to express his insights about that terrible day and its aftermath. 

Dark Clouds Above, Faith Below is an intelligent, religious meditation on the current circumstances in Israel at this point in history. Taragin discusses many important ideas in his essays, organized into six themed sections: Tragedy, Emunah, Kiddush Hashem, Transformations, Cultural Struggles, and History and Prophecy, all written over a period of months. Some of the essays were written for a general audience, including non-Jews, and some for “a more classically Orthodox audience.” As a result, some cite Torah sources and others do not.

Reflecting on how the events of Oct. 7 have impacted Jewish identity worldwide, the author suggests that “It could be that Jews are so revulsed by the bloodthirstiness and moral degeneracy of our enemies, that they are attracted to the light of our religion.”

How has the October 7 massacre impacted global Jewish identity?

The essay “Dread and Optimism” discusses the “complex range of emotions” that every Israeli and likely every Jew has been struggling with. Putting words to our pain and confusion, he names the feelings: “shock, sorrow, revulsion, mourning, fear, anger, and anxiety.” He also comforts us with the thought that “Envisioning the long view of Jewish history restores faith and reinforces optimism.”

Taragin contrasts the “quiet heroism” of the Israelis with the Gazan “culture of death.”

“It is tragic but ironic that terrorists spent billions of dollars building machineries of death. Terror tunnels have absolutely no ulterior purpose or function other than havoc and death. Instead of investing in human beings, these bloodthirsty terrorists invested in death,” he writes.

In one of his Torah lessons, the author compares the willingness of Moses, the leader of the Children of Israel, to personally retrieve and escort the coffin that contained the bones of Joseph through 40 years in the desert to the willingness of Israelis at all levels of society to step into volunteer roles during the war. In this context, he relates a sweet story of how Rav Medan, the 73-year-old rosh yeshiva of Yeshivat Har Etzion, volunteered for kitchen duty on a day when the students, who themselves were replacing the Arab kitchen workers, were unavailable. 

While musing on Islam as a religion, Taragin says (contrary to some non-Muslims who argue that Islam has always been inherently violent), “Sadly, Islamic fundamentalism, once part of the monotheistic tradition, has lost its course. By basing religion upon militantism and the capture and conversion of others, it disfigured the image of God. God was now imagined as Himself angry and militant, vengeful and capricious. 

“Islamic fundamentalists, though they masquerade as religious people are, essentially, atheists. Though they speak in the name of religion, they describe a God who does not exist. There is no joy in Heaven when innocents suffer. They have vandalized the face of Hashem in our world and have abandoned the legacy of Abraham.”

Taragin carries on this theme in a further essay: “Just as the Hellenists before them, Islamic fundamentalists threaten the cardinal belief in the divine image of human beings.”

“Pure evil does exist,” he writes, in a discourse that includes an assessment of antisemitism, reminding us his that “Tragically, antisemitism is baked into the fabric of history.”

Dark Clouds Above, Faith Below is not an easy book to read, covering, as it does, multiple dark themes. At the same time, sprinkled throughout is the very clear message that Israel and the Jewish people will survive.

Ending on a high note, Taragin arranged the volume so that the final words would be spiritually encouraging: “Our ageless battle continues. It is the battle of Jewish history against zealous enemies. It is a battle for Jewish destiny and for the Kingdom of Hashem in this world. It is eternal. Like Esav, original Amalek, Haman, and Hitler, the modern Amalek will be swept into the dustbin of history, in ignominy.”

Dark Clouds Above, Faith Below is available in bookstores or from amazon.com/dp/B0CZ7N8ZJB 

The reviewer is a freelance journalist and expert on the non-Jewish awakening to Torah happening in our day. She is the editor of Ten From The Nations and Lighting Up The Nations. 

• DARK CLOUDS ABOVE, FAITH BELOW 
• By Rabbi Moshe Taragin
• Kodesh Press
• 213 pages; $25