D'var Torah

Simchat Torah: Bringing it All Together

It has been a season of Holy Day greetings: Shanah Tovah on the new year, G’mar Chatimah Tovah on Yom Kippur, Chag Sameach and Moadim L’simcha on the first and then the intervening days of Sukkot, and tonight we again wish each other Chag Sameach as we begin the last of the High Holy Days, Simchat Torah (Rejoicing in Torah).  

It has also been a spiritual journey over the last month.  These special days ask us to focus progressively on renewal, teshuvah and repentance, gratitude for our world and its bounty, and now the Torah.  Tomorrow evening we will take the Torah out and unroll it until we can see the entire scroll at once. We will look back through the highlights of our people’s story from creation, to the flood, to the covenant with Abraham, our descent into Egypt and our exodus through the wilderness, and finally the death of Moses before we enter the land of Israel.  It is a wonderful experience to step back, open up the book of our people’s journey, and celebrate our life in community today.

Simchat Torah seems like an appropriate way to close the High Holy days. It affirms that all of the things we love about Judaism – the values and teachings, the holidays, the history and stories, wisdom and ritual that help us through the difficult times and enhance the joyful times, come from Torah. And,as tomorrow night we will read the last verses of Deuteronomy and then start the cycle of weekly readings right over again with the first verses of Genesis, it also reminds us that our communal life has a beautiful rhythm, supported by Torah.

As we wrap up this holiday season, may the Torah and its teachings help us enter the new year with a new sense of purpose and connection to our community, and may our lives this year be filled with good experiences and successes, new insights, health and peace.

Chag Sameach and Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Jeffrey Saxe