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September 27, 2002/Tishri 21 5763, Vol. 55, No. 5
Celebrating mezuzot in time
Torah study
DR. NEIL GILLMAN
Shmini Atzeret and Simchat Torah
Simchat Torah is the messiest festival of the Jewish year. Here in the Diaspora, it is celebrated as the second day of Shemini Atzeret, though in Israel, the two festivals are observed together on one day. Even though the name of the festival appears nowhere in the liturgy and records of its celebration date only from the early middle ages, it has acquired a very distinctive character.
It is a festival created by the Jewish people. That is probably what accounts for its messiness. Its distinctive practices evolved through generations in various communities. To us today, they may seem inviolable, but they are really minhagim, customs.
On the morning of the festival, after morning worship, we parade the Torahs around the perimeter of the sanctuary seven times, accompanied by singing and dancing and followed by the children waving flags. We remove three Torah scrolls from the ark. From the first, we read the beginning of the last Torah portion in the annual cycle, VeZot HaBrachah, chapter 33 of Deuteronomy. We read that section again and again, until every congregant has been given an aliyah.
Then, accompanied by much singing, we read Deuteronomy 34, the last chapter of the Torah scroll, which deals with the death of Moses. Almost immediately thereafter, from the second scroll, we begin the Torah reading cycle again with the first chapter of Genesis, the story of creation.
During the service, congregants come in and out, circulate, chat, sing, dance - hardly your conventional notion of an orderly service - and the mood throughout is one of levity. Congregants who place a premium on order and decorum have a tough time on this day. But our kids have a great time; this is a day when they are encouraged to run around, play pranks, make noise, nosh candies, fruit and cookies or cake. As its name implies, this is a day for rejoicing - not quite Purim, but close.
This is also the last day of the holiday season, which is probably one of the reasons for the light-headed mood. There is clearly a sense of relief in the air. We will soon return to our regular routines, to a "normal" week.
But in the midst of the levity, there is a moment of high drama on this day - the moment in between the reading of the end of Deuteronomy and the beginning of Genesis, typically, about three minutes.
That moment of high drama is multi-layered. First, it is a statement of continuity. A popular legend suggests that we begin the Torah reading cycle again, immediately after concluding it, in order to counter Satan's accusation that now that we have finished the Torah cycle, we will simply drop it. Our study of Torah never ends.
More important, the moment of drama takes us from death back to life - from the death of Moses, to the creation of the world and of life. That is an incredibly powerful statement as we return to our homes after the end of the holiday season. It is also particularly powerful at this moment in our country's history.
My personal metaphor for some Jewish ritual moments is to call them mezuzot in time - door posts that separate one moment from another, as a mezuzah in space separates one room from another, or our homes from the outside world. They are also instances of "saying goodbye and saying hello." At that moment, on Simchat Torah, we say goodbye to Moses, and hello to the world, goodbye to death and hello to life.
That's why on each Simchat Torah, despite the levity around me, at that moment, I am profoundly moved.
Rabbi Neil Gillman is professor of Jewish philosophy at the Jewish Theological Seminary.
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