The Day of Superposition

Today is Hoshana Rabbah, the last day of Chol HaMoed Sukkot. Six years ago, I wrote “Chol HaMoed—Days in Superposition,” exploring how these intermediate days occupy a mixed state between holiday and weekday. I once applied the same lens to Victory Day (May 9th) – “a  holiday with tears in the eyes.” Today, these two superpositions merged: a day that is both Chol HaMoed and a celebration marked by joy and tears.

Israel—and the Jewish people everywhere—found today in a strange quantum state: joy and grief, hope and anger, all present at once. Early reports spoke of seven hostages released; by day’s end, all twenty remaining living captives were home, while families of the murdered still await their loved ones’ remains. Simultaneously, nearly two thousand Palestinian prisoners were freed—many with Jewish blood on their hands. Who can fathom what the bereaved families feel, watching their loved ones’ killers walk free? So many contradictory emotions, all at once.

“He makes peace in His heights.” Our sages read this as G‑d reconciling fire and water, or the archangels Michael and Gabriel—embodiments of chesed and gevurah, kindness and severity. If heaven can hold opposites without annihilation, so can the Jewish heart. We don’t flatten emotions; we sanctify their direction. In Chabad thought, merirut (holy bitterness) and simchah (holy joy) can coexist. The goal isn’t to cancel one with the other but to channel both toward love and awe of G‑d.

In quantum mechanics, a system can exist in a superposition of multiple states simultaneously present. An electron can be spin-up and spin-down at once. While imagining a top spinning both clockwise and counterclockwise defies intuition, today we embody exactly that: a superposition of contradictory emotions, all equally real.

Takeaway: Hold the full spectrum without apology. Channel joy into gratitude, grief into compassion, anger into responsibility, hope into concrete acts of kindness, and, above all, remember that our unity creates the protective shield around our nation. In a world of superpositions, our choices collapse the wavefunction—toward life, dignity, and peace.