People are drinking, singing and dancing. It’s loud and crowded. No, you’re not at a bar — or even a bar mitzvah. It’s Simchat Torah.
The holiday celebrates the culmination of the year’s Torah readings and is, quite literally, a time to rejoice.
“I love that Simchat Torah is a joyous holiday,” said Rabbi Donald Goor, rabbi emeritus at Temple Judea in Tarzana. “I love that the Torah is at the center of the holiday because it is the center of who we are as a people.”
Most synagogues encourage their congregants to sing and dance, along with performing hakafot (carrying the Torah scrolls around the sanctuary). This expression of joy extends to all participants — from the oldest to the youngest.
“I’m always busy moving the Torahs from person to person. It’s powerful for me. I look at the people who are at the service; I know the kind of year they have had, I know which people really need to touch a Torah,” Rabbi Lisa Hochberg-Miller, spiritual leader of Temple Beth Torah in Ventura.
Day-school children also get to share in the fun.
“We hold a number of wonderful services at which we complete the reading of the Torah and then begin the cycle anew,” said Bill Cohen, head of school at Kadima Day School in West Hills. “We sing many songs, and our students parade around school singing and dancing in celebration of the holiday.”
One of the most exciting parts of a Simchat Torah service comes at the end, when some congregations unroll the Torah scroll (or scrolls) to encircle the sanctuary.
“Our congregation is surrounded by Torah,” Goor said.
While this tradition is beautiful, the danger of exposing the parchment is not lost on the clergy.
“We’re always a little bit afraid of someone crashing into the Torah,” he said, “but the joy overwhelms the fear. It is a sense of awe for little kids, and it teaches two things: that Torah is accessible for all of us and that you have to be careful with the Torah.”
Temple Beth Torah uses Simchat Torah to symbolize more than just the end of the Torah readings for the year.
“I ask all of the kids who have had their bar or bat mitzvahs to stand in front of their Torah portions after we unroll the scroll,” Hochberg-Miller said. “We start in Genesis and each child will read snippets of his or her Torah portion. We pass the yad. … We may end up having eight or more kids who will read or chant their first aliyah. It reconnects them back to Torah and that special moment. It gives us a sort of ‘Torah year in review.’ It reminds the kids that life is not just about one moment.”
Other special traditions permeate the holiday celebration at many local shuls. At Temple Judea, every child receives a candy bar during the service.
“Children should always associate sweetness with learning,” Goor said.
The profoundness of being able to physically touch a Torah has special meaning for Jews who are experiencing religious freedom for the first time.
“I have a congregant who arrived from Moscow about nine years ago. She is at our Simchat Torah service every year. This was not something she could have ever done while she was in Moscow. She never could have gone to synagogue and danced with the Torah,” Hochberg-Miller said. “Every year she is there without fail. It always sort of comes back to how we have to hold this as precious and value this and not take it for granted. It’s a reminder for us.”
At the crux of the holiday is a basic tenet of Judaism: love for learning.
“Simchat Torah helps us celebrate learning — the notion that learning doesn’t end. No matter who we are, we always have something to learn,” Goor said. “It’s a great start for the new year.”
