After a year of terrorism, war and rising anti-Semitism, Jews around the world are preparing to celebrate Simchas Torah tomorrow. This holiday marks the joyful conclusion of the reading of the entire Five Books of Moses and is celebrated with dancing, libations, and the immediate resumption of reading the Torah from the beginning, beginning with the Book of Genesis.
Despite the commandment to be joyful on this holy holiday, the celebration will be tempered by the fact that many cannot join in the dance with their Jewish brothers and sisters – the 60 remaining hostages still held captive by terrorists in Gaza.
Simchas Torah will also commemorate on the Jewish calendar the anniversary of the barbaric October 7 terrorist attack that killed 1,200 people, injured thousands and kidnapped 250, including elderly Holocaust survivors and children, in what should have been a solemn ceremony.
Rabbi Menachem Heller, who leads Brooklyn’s Chabad Synagogue in Bushwick, invites the community to join them tomorrow at a gathering to celebrate Simchas Torah. “Simchas Torah celebrates the completion of Torah study, but on this holiday we don’t study – we dance. Everyone, even those who do not study, has a soul connected with Torah,” he says.
“Everyone comes to dance; there is no distinction.”
The celebration will be held at the Chabad of Bushwick, located on Flushing Avenue near the Morgan L stop, and will include a buffet of traditional Jewish cuisine, dancing and L’Chaim (celebration of drinks). The event will start at 6:30 p.m. and everyone is cordially invited to attend.
Simchas Torah marks the end of the most important Jewish holidays following Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot. Jews have a habit of carrying Torah scrolls in their arms and joyfully dancing seven times in a circle around the bimah, the podium in the center of the synagogue from which the Torah is usually read. Each revolution around the bimah is called hakafot.
Although the practice of circumambulating the bimah with the Torah is an ancient custom of the Jewish people, the tradition of specially circumambulating the bimah seven times is believed to have originated in the 16th century by Rabbi Yitzhak Luria. The seven revolutions around the bimah are believed to represent the seven days of creation, symbolizing that God created the world so that the Torah could be studied and its commandments fulfilled.
Another kabbalistic interpretation is that each hakafot corresponds to one of seven divine attributes: chesed (benevolence), gevurah (strength), tiferet (beauty), netzach (victory), hod (splendor), yesod (foundation), and malchut ( kingdom). ).
Sam Impellicceiri, a financial advisor who regularly attends Chabad of Bushwick, says that while it is important to celebrate this joyful occasion, his heart aches for those who cannot.
“I feel like my cup is a little less full knowing that there are people cut off from their families,” he said.
Trying to feel joy during a solemn holiday is nothing new for the long-suffering Jewish people. Plagued by expulsions, forced conversions, pogroms and extermination camps, many Jews struggled to find reasons for joy. The 18th-century Torah sage, the Gaon of Vilnius, even stated that the commandment of joy in Simchas Torah was the “most difficult” of all mitzvahs.
“Simchas Torah is something that Jews celebrate even in the most difficult times,” Rabbi Heller tells the Bushwick Daily*. “Even in Auschwitz, in the concentration camps… it’s part of who we are.”
During last year’s holiday celebrations, Chabad of Bushwick was flooded with devastated worshipers – many of whom rarely attend regular services – struggling to cope with the aftermath of the horrific Hamas attack.
“They needed a place to cry,” Rabbi Heller said. “People were crying and dancing, but that’s not a contradiction. “It’s part of being Jewish – we can cry, dance and celebrate our heritage, our religion and our connection to Torah, regardless of the difficult situations we find ourselves in.”
In fact, the end of the Torah reading cycle is associated with one of the saddest events in Jewish history: the death of Moses, the prophet who led the Jews out of slavery in Egypt and into the Promised Land. The final scene of the Torah depicts the death of the prophet, and it was once common practice to mourn on this joyful holiday the loss of the man Jews call “our teacher.”
“When it comes to the essence of the Jew, which is the Torah, we have reason to dance. This does not mean that we forget the difficulties we face, but we know that we have Torah and that is a reason to celebrate,” Rabbi Heller said.
Tomorrow, Thursday, October 24 at 6:30 p.m., Chabad of Bushwick will host a Simchas Torah celebration. More information can be found at ChabadofBushwick.org.
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