By Isaac Tarica

The Jewish month of Tishrei is a very particular and intense month. It begins with the celebration of Rosh ha Shanah, the beginning of the year. It is the beginning of a period of introspection and evaluation. Yom Kippur arrives ten days later, the day of fasting and the closing of the evaluation. The month continues with Sukkot, the most joyous holiday in the entire Jewish calendar. He is so cheerful that one of his names is "The Party", Ha Jag. We started with a difficult job, and we ended the month with La Fiesta.

Tradition proposes joy, not as a consequence of something good that is happening but the other way around, as a practice to be cultivated and developed without reason, or perhaps always looking for a reason. Joy as a decision.

A rabbi was teaching a class and was told that his house was on fire. He and his students ran out and when they got to the house they discovered that it was not worth trying to put out the fire. The rabbi suddenly began to sing and dance in front of that tragedy and his students thought that he had gone crazy. Finally, one of them dares to ask him: "Master, why does he dance, does he not see what is happening?" The Master replies: "I dance because I see what is happening, I dance because I am not in there."

At this very moment, as I write these lines and you are reading them, there are many women, girls and boys who are experiencing situations of mistreatment, abuse or captivity in their own homes, houses that are on fire. Unlike the story, they cannot dance in this situation. In this review month we need to start our own change. Men have to say clearly and directly to our sisters, our daughters, mothers, sisters-in-law, friends, co-workers that if they are experiencing a situation of mistreatment or abuse by their partners, they can count on us. That we will accompany them wherever they need. We have to decide to share work equally in our homes, we have to condemn any sexist and discriminatory comments towards women.

In addition, each and every one of us can help organizations that defend victims of gender violence, as volunteers or with financial aid. Each of these actions will produce a positive effect.

The greater the commitment, the more chances of getting more victims out of the prison of gender violence. More chances that they can find a way out and make their own decisions. It is urgent.

Let's choose joy, let's defend joy, ours and also that of others.