Simchat Torah: By Rabbi Denise L.Eger
During this week of festive joy we celebrate Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles. But we end the week with even greater rejoicing! We celebrate the cycle of our Torah. The torah has its own rhythm and we will end and begin the cycle of reading of our weekly portions on Simchat Torah. For Reform Jews this day happens on the eighth day or shemini atzeret, the same as in the land of Israel. For Conservative and Orthodox Jews outside of Israel, Simchat Torah happens on what would be the ninth day since the beginning of Sukkot.
Since we just ended the old year and began a new one, it doesn’t seem so strange to end and begin other things. On Simchat Torah we read the last verses of Deuteronomy and immediately proceed to read the opening verses of the Torah from Genesis. This immediacy brings with it a message. It teaches us that Torah is never ending. God’s covenant is never ending. Our values and ethics are never ending. Jewish study and learning should be never ending.
Even though we have read the stories of the Torah year in and year out, each year of living changes us. So too the way we approach a story. We see it through different eyes each year. Thus whether reading of Abraham’s journey to Mt. Moriah or Moses’ encounter with the burning bush, we see them through a different lens each time we encounter these stories. That is the challenge of Torah in our lives; to make the learning speak to us in new ways –not because the stories change but because we have changed and our world has changed.
One of the highlights of Simchat Torah is the opportunity to take the scrolls out and parade them around the synagogue seven times. Each circuit or hakafah is a chance for the community to surround themselves with Torah and dance and celebrate this Divine gift! The seven circuits or hakafot remind us of the seven branches of the menorah which spread Divine light in the ancient temple. The Torah scrolls in our day and time spread Divine enlightenment to each one of us. On Simchat Torah we want to reflect that Divine enlightment in our celebration and festivities. That is why the book of Proverbs teaches us the Mitzvah is a lamp, the Torah is a light (Proverbs 6:23)
So on this Simchat Torah when we end the reading of the Torah with the great light of our teacher Moses and then immediately read about the first act of Creation by God, “Let there be light (Gen. 1:3)” we are to remember that all of Torah is that light that can lead us to a life filled with hope and knowledge, goodness and blessing. On Simchat Torah may we be filled with the light of God’s love and God’s enduring power.
Posted by Lee at October 9, 2006 08:49 AM
