Written in Tears: A Torah for the Bibas Family

On the eve of the funeral for Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir Bibas – a Jewish, Israeli family ripped from their beds on October 7th and murdered in captivity – the lone survivor of their beautiful little family, father Yarden Bibas, wrote the last three words in a Torah scroll. He completed a new Torah dedicated to the memory of his wife and beloved children.

Consider that for a moment. A bereaved father who himself was a hostage for almost 500 days in the pits of hell emerged to find he was a widower, his children gone. Yet in his darkest hour, he chose to commit their memories in the most true and meaningful way possible – by completing a Sefer Torah.

That should tell you everything you need to know about the Jewish people.

What drives a man in his darkest moment to turn to the ancient practice of inscribing sacred text? Why would completing a Torah scroll be the highest form of memorial? And what can we all learn from this powerful act of remembrance?

The roots of this tradition extend to the final book of the Torah, where Moses delivers God’s explicit instruction:

The sages interpreted this verse as a commandment for every Jewish person to write their own Torah scroll. This mitzvah doesn’t simply mean producing a document—it represents taking personal ownership of the covenant between God and the Jewish people. By writing or commissioning a Torah, one literally inscribes themselves into the ongoing story of their people.

But there’s more to it. The Torah isn’t just any book—it’s the blueprint of creation itself. Jewish tradition teaches that God consulted the Torah before creating the world (Bereishit Rabbah 1:1). Its words aren’t merely descriptions of reality but the very building blocks that shape it. When a Jew writes a Torah scroll, they aren’t just preserving history; they’re actively participating in the ongoing creation of the world.

What were those final three words that Yarden Bibas inscribed? The Torah concludes with the phrase “l’einei kol Yisrael“—”before the eyes of all Israel.”

These words complete the account of Moses, who led the Israelites to the edge of the Promised Land but never entered it himself. The Torah’s final sentence describes Moses’s unprecedented closeness to God and his mighty deeds “before the eyes of all Israel.”

These last three words carry particular significance. They suggest that Moses’s greatest leadership quality wasn’t his private relationship with God, but his ability to manifest God’s presence visibly to the entire community. His miracles and teachings weren’t hidden wisdom but lived experiences shared collectively.

When Yarden wrote these words, he wasn’t just completing a ritual task. He was making a declaration: the lives of Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir Bibas—and their tragic deaths—happened “before the eyes of all Israel.” Their memory would not fade into private grief but would become part of the collective consciousness of the Jewish people – and the friends of the Jewish people and Israel.

The creation of a Sefer Torah is unlike any other writing process. A trained scribe (sofer) meticulously forms each of the 304,805 letters with a quill on carefully prepared parchment. The scroll must be written without a single error—a mistake on a single letter invalidates the entire scroll.

The sofer cannot write from memory but must copy from an existing Torah. Before writing God’s name, the scribe must declare their intention to sanctify it. If the name is written incorrectly, the entire sheet—not just the word—must be buried rather than corrected.

This exacting process typically takes about a year to complete. Often, communities will commission a Torah scroll but leave the final letters unwritten. In a ceremony called a siyum Torah (completion of the Torah), community members are invited to fulfill the commandment by helping to complete the final words under the guidance of the scribe.

When Yarden Bibas wrote those final three words, he was participating in a tradition that has preserved Jewish identity through centuries of exile, persecution, and displacement. The Torah isn’t merely a historical document or religious text—it’s the lifeblood of Jewish continuity.

In Jewish tradition, a Sefer Torah is treated with the utmost reverence. When it enters a room, people stand. When it falls, the community fasts. It is dressed in fine garments, adorned with a crown, and held close to the heart when carried. If it is broken or cannot be used, it is buried in the earth.

By dedicating a Torah scroll to his murdered family, Yarden Bibas ensured that Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir would be remembered every time the scroll is read, every time it’s carried in procession, every time it’s held close to someone’s heart. Their names will be spoken in the same breath as the sacred text that has sustained Jewish life for millennia.

In dedicating this Torah, Yarden gave his family the gift of ongoing presence in the community. While their physical lives were brutally cut short, their memory will continue to inspire, to teach, and to bear witness “before the eyes of all Israel.”

There’s something else we must recognize in Yarden’s act—a defiance that transcends words. Those who murdered his family sought not only to end individual lives but to terrorize and demoralize an entire people. They targeted the most vulnerable—a mother and her young children—to inflict maximum pain.

By completing a Torah scroll, Yarden answered this darkness with light, this destruction with creation, this hatred with the words that have sustained his people through their darkest hours. He demonstrated that the Jewish response to tragedy has never been surrender but renewed commitment to life and tradition.

This is the essence of Jewish resilience. Not that we don’t grieve—we grieve deeply—but that we channel our grief into acts that affirm life. The completion of a Torah scroll isn’t an ending but a beginning. After the last letter is written, the scroll is raised high for all to see, and the community declares: “Chazak, chazak, v’nitchazek“—”Be strong, be strong, and let us be strengthened.”

In his moment of deepest loss, Yarden Bibas strengthened not only himself but his entire people. His act of remembrance became an act of resistance—proving that even in the face of unspeakable tragedy, the words of Torah and the people who carry them forward cannot be erased.

May we commit ourselves before God in merit of Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir, and all those killed since October 7th. May their souls forever protect us and may we merit to see only goodness from God.

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