Dance it Off

“Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old, together; for I will turn their mourning to joy, will comfort them, and make them rejoice rather than sorrow.” Jeremiah 31:13

This is not a new phenomenon. Dancing is woven into the very fabric of Jewish and Israeli identity, stretching back thousands of years. The Teacher of Ecclesiastes wrote that “to everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven … a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance” (3:1, 4, emphasis added). And time and again, the people of Israel have shown the world that they know how to move between those seasons with extraordinary grace.

Dancing Before the Lord

King David himself “danced before the Lord with all his might” (2 Sam. 6:14), an act of pure, uninhibited worship and celebration. Add in the context that just earlier in the same chapter, Uzzah had died while the Ark of the Covenant was being transported. In the aftermath, David had been angry, even fearful of the Lord. His emotions were raw and complicated. But he did not hold on to his fear or his grief. A few verses later, his turmoil had transformed into sacrifice, worship and dancing.

It was King David who later wrote Psalm 30 while dedicating his house, immortalizing in verse what he had lived in practice: “You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness” (v.11). Modern Israelis seem to carry this same truth in their bones.

Dancing through Holidays

Dancing in Israel is pure joy, and if you haven’t experienced it firsthand, consider this your sign to book a ticket. It is an integral part of Israeli celebrations, woven into the rhythm of the year’s most meaningful moments.

One of the most joyful is Yom HaAtzmaut (Independence Day), when Israelis celebrate the rebirth of the modern State of Israel in 1948. Streets are flooded with Israeli flags, everyone is dressed in white and blue and music blares from every corner as crowds and total strangers dance and celebrate with abandon.

What makes this holiday even more profound is what precedes it: a week earlier comes Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) and then the day before, Yom HaZikaron, Memorial Day, when the nation pauses to solemnly remember fallen soldiers and victims of terror. In the span of 24 hours, Israel moves from tears to celebration, honoring the cost of not having a Jewish state and the price that was paid so that the people of Israel could have a state in which to live, to worship, to celebrate and to dance.

This is the Israeli way. They cry, mourn and weep. And then they celebrate, laugh and dance. Milestones like weddings and bar and bat mitzvahs (coming-of-age ceremonies) are boisterous celebrations of life, where everyone from family members to strangers is pulled into a circle to link arms for the lively, iconic Hora dance.

Everyone is Welcome in the Circle 

One of the most beautiful things about dancing in Israel is its radical inclusivity. In the Hora, men typically dance in one circle, women in another, but no one is a stranger for long. If you’re nearby, you’re pulled into the circle.

I witnessed this firsthand when my mother, an American Gentile Christian, came to visit me in Israel during the Hanukkah season. On the last night of the holiday, we wandered downtown and stumbled into a live concert on the street, where spontaneous dancing had erupted. Before my mother knew what was happening, she was tugged into the circle of dancing women, laughing, spinning and celebrating life alongside people she had never met. It is one of her favorite memories from the entire trip, and one of mine too.

Dance it Off

When the rockets—literal and proverbial—begin flying overhead, the instinct is to stay underground, to keep hiding, to stay behind the concrete long after the sirens have gone quiet. But the people of Israel have learned something that the rest of the world would do well to follow: when it’s safe to come out, come out. Step into the street. Dance, worship and live life to the fullest.