Word Prompt - STICKY - Ann Koffsky

As I write this, it is day 11 of the war. The October 7 war? The Simchat Torah war? It doesn’t have a name yet. But it will. Some name will be thought of. It will get shared, and it will…stick.

That’s how names (even nicknames) work. That’s how a boy in camp can be known as “Stretch.” Someone coins a term and says it to a friend. They like it, and repeat. If it’s sticky? It catches on.

In 1975 that’s how Rabbi Moshe Feinstein described how he became a posek to the NY Times: “You don't wake up in the morning and decide you're an expert on answers. If people see that one answer is good and another answer is good, gradually you will be accepted.''

If he was a marketer, he might have described that as “stickiness.”

But the key to stickiness is in the sharing. If there is no sharing, nothing sticks. A word can’t become a name. A second question is never asked.

So yes, this war will get a name. Someone will find just the right turn of phrase that captures the brutality of this attack.

But that name will also have to capture the remarkable “stickiness” of Klal Yisrael, too. The helping hands being extended across divides and across oceans. Klal Yisrael is sticking together and performing astonishing chesed in remarkable ways.

Hopefully, we can help that chesed stick around for a long time, beyond the battles we have been forced to fight. May Hashem see our achdus and reward us with a swift and safe victory.