One of the most joyous holidays in the Hebrew calendar is Simchat Torah (“Rejoicing of the Torah”).
At Temple Judea this holiday was celebrated in a most traditional and very exciting, moving and pleasing way. The children of the Temple Judea’s Religious School, along with their parents and other members of the Temple were wide-eyed with delight . This celebration, with all of the joy and excitement of the holiday, contains rituals that date back thousands of years.
The main focus of Simchat Torah is reading the last sentences of Deutoronomy, which is the last book of the Torah, and immediately reading the beginning sentences of the first book, Genesis. The reading of these two portions, as explained by Rabbi Todd Chizner, is to symbolize the continuity of Torah.
A long line of tables had been set up in advance to accommodate the entire length of the Torah scroll from the beginning to the end. Rabbi Chizner came in, holding the Torah and, with the help of Cantor Deborah Jacobson and some of the congregants, began to carefully unroll the Torah along the tables, all the way to the final words in Deuteronomy, “for all the awesome power that Moses displayed before all Israel.”
After this last portion was read, the first portion in Genesis was then read: “In the Beginning God created the heaven and the earth”.
These rituals are historic and symbolic. Jews around the world are performing this ritual exactly the same way on Simchat Torah.
After the reading of the Torah by Cantor Jacobson, and explanations by Rabbi Chizner, the congregation moved into the Sanctuary.
Everyone received a small paper flag, Torahs were taken from the ark after appropriate blessings and the ritual called “hakafot” began. With Cantor Jacobson leading the singing, the march began around the Sanctuary, with four Torah scrolls on the shoulders of members strong enough to carry them, followed by the children and all others, each holding their little flags and singing. It was truly a joyous and moving ceremony.
As is the custom, a light supper was served afterward in the ballroom.
