Exhausted from RH YK Sukkot, cooking, building sukkas, no sleep and so on (and of course kids off school!)
Simchat Torah is only a few days away and often we find ourselves exhausted, shulled out for some, not in the mood to get our dancing shoes on! so here are just a few thoughts on Simchat Torah
Simchat Torah we conclude the annual cycle of the Torah reading and restart anew with Bereishit.
To celebrate the custom of circling the Bimah with circuits (Hakafot) developed paralleling the circuits made with willows and the Arbah Minim around the Temple Altar. Simchat Torah with its numerous customs can be traced back at least a 1000 years to the medieval period
Many of us find it very difficult to dance with the Torah. It seems strange, unseemly or awkward. When we go to a Wedding or other Simcha we understand exactly the cause of the joy and can easily join in. But if we have not followed fully the Torah cycle and if we are not that religiously inclined then dancing on Simchat Torah can feel forced. I would like to show how the exact opposite is the case how Simchat Torah is for every single Jew no matter what their knowledge or observance level.
But first a few words on the concept of religious dance.
Dancing with the Torah can be traced back to a much earlier episode in our history. We find King David (Samuel II 6) brought the Holy Ark to Jerusalem and danced and leaped in front of the people with such passion and unbridled joy that he took no heed of his personal dignity. In fact so wild was his dancing before the Ark that he drew bitterly acerbic criticism from his wife Michal (daughter of King Saul).
She said “How honoured was today the king of Israel, who exposed himself today in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as would expose himself one of the idlers.”
To which King David famously replied:
“Before the Lord, who chose me above your father, and above all his house, to appoint me prince over the people of the Lord, over Israel; therefore I have made merry before the Lord. And if I be demeaned more than this, and be abashed in mine own eyes, [yet] of the maidservants of which you have spoken, with them will I get me honour.”
The Tenach is unequivocal in its support for King David’s position concluding with a tragically sombre tone “And Michal the daughter of Saul had no child until the day of her death”
Here we have the clearest source and example for religious-spiritual ecstatic celebrations that override not only the normal bounds of personal dignity but even that of a king of Israel- King David no less.
The essence of religious worship is reaching out beyond the self to touch Godliness. The spiritual impulse and yearning is to connect and dissolve into the Unity of Hashem. From this perspective the diminishment of ones ego in the pursuit of Godliness is to be praised.
Now back to Simchat Torah:
It is fascinating to note how we dance with the Sifrei Torah closed fully clothed in their majestic mantles. It surely would make more sense to have the scrolls open to symbolise that we have completed reading it. This is after all what we do after every individual Torah reading. A person is called up to perform the ritual Hagbaah lifting the Torah with at least three columns visible to the congregation who then proclaim
“This is the Torah that Moses placed before the children of Israel”?!
The answer is so simple yet uncovers the profundity of the festival of Simchat Torah as well as Judaism in general. The closed Sifrei Torah symbolise that all Jews are connected to the Torah no matter their current level of knowledge, observance, religiosity or piety!
The open scroll implies a relationship of understanding and intellectual appreciation of the Torah. This is a relationship each and every Jew is called upon and invited to spiritually enlighten their souls and enrich their lives with Godly wisdom. But what of the Jew who has yet to activate their relationship with God through the Torah. Are they left behind?
Simchat Torah emphatically teaches us that every Jew has a connection to the Torah with God that transcends the intellect, understanding, knowledge and rationality.
The core of the Jewish soul that precedes our normative consciousness (and is the root of our transcendent faith) touches the Essence of Hashem.
The Zohar (attributed to Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai 2nd Century C.E.) the primarily mystical text of Judaism taught this principal succinctly “God, Torah and Israel are all One”.
The Torah is the great democratising force behind Judaism. We all have our induvial portion and link in the Torah.
Simchat Torah is the day we are able to completely let go and get in touch with the core of our souls.
We become the feet of the Torah dancing the night and day away in gleeful abandon. The depth of our joy knows no bounds because we are celebrating not the limited human understanding and perspectives of the Torah (however simple or even deep ), but rather we are tuning into the very core of the Torah that binds us to Hashem which is infinite!
In Maariv each day we say in the second blessing before the Shema “Ki Heim Chayeinu Veorech Yameinu” – for they (meaning the Torah and the Mitzvot) are our life and the length of our days.
True life is a life lived with higher meaning and purpose.
“How fortunate are we, how goodly is our portion, and how how pleasant is our lot” (Weekday Shacharit)
May we merit to let go of the barriers our egos put up to be able to dance with true joy as
“True joy breaches all barriers”.
And if you are not in the mood to dance, then dance anyway as sooner or later your true core will emerge – a burning fiery love of Hashem.
Shabbat Shalom & Good Yom Tov
Thank you, Rabbi Danny for your insights in how the Torah inspires dance. I was reminded of Tu B’Av, a day of joy and love, when young maidens, dressed in white, would dance in the vineyards of Jerusalem. On my first visit to Israel, that coincided with Sukkot, I remember on Simchat Torah being invited to dance with a Sefer Torah; and when in Shul, stopping after a hakafah, for suitable refreshment, reminiscent of Purim, and to clock up many hakafot, with, of course, essential “spiritual” fuel. Yes, we have left behind a time for serious reflection, but at the end of these Yamim Noraim we are reminded of what is quintessential to Judaism: joy at being alive and witness to G-d’s presence in the world.