IS SIMCHAT TORAH IN THE WRONG SEASON?Irving Greenberg
The serious invasion on Simchat Torah, a normally joyous day when Jews complete the annual cycle of reading the Torah scroll, revived painful memories of the 1973 Mideast war practically 50 years to the day, in which Israel's enemies launched a surprise attack on Yom Kippur, the holiest day...
Stories for Shemini Atzeret & Simchat Torah When I was 23 years-old, I packed everything up and headed south towards Los Angeles to begin my program towards an MAED and MBA at the-then University of Judaism (now American Jewish University). How I, with my Bay Area Reform Jewish backgrou...
The past three months have been a massive challenge for Israelis. Hamas has kept up the rocket fire on the civilian population, which is still coming to terms with the attack on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah that left 1,200 people dead, thousands wounded and hundreds more taken hostag...
And just in case we missed the point ofYom Kippur, we follow it up withSimchat Torah, the holiday on which we finally read the last verse of the Torah and then immediately celebrate by starting over again with the first verse. I tell my young students that it’s like readingGoodnight ...
After the high holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur end, Jewish families around the world prepare for three more holidays: Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret, and Simchat Torah.In Israel and among some Jews, Sukkot and Shemini Atzeret are combined into one holiday on the day after Sukkot ends. ...
carried out a mega-atrocity, slaughtering, raping, mutilating, and setting fire to southern Israeli communities. Some 1,200 were murdered that Saturday – which coincided with the joyous Jewish religious holiday of Simchat Torah – and some 250 were abducted to Gaza, where 101 remain, dead or...
Some years, on Simchat Torah, we’ve stood in a circle so we could unroll the scroll and see the story of our people in its entirety. I always try to point out some of major milestones, and the parts that are written in a visually interesting way. I always tell the person standing...
Sukkot is followed immediately by Simchat Torah. My short prayer: May that day – now tainted by the pogrom of October 7 – be restored to one of unadulterated, pure joy for the Jewish people in a world that can finally be trusted. ...
Jewish men dancing with the Torah (Word of God) on the holiday of Simchat Torah (Joy of the Torah). Rejoicing in Our Salvation King David made rejoicing a very personal matter when even after the sin of sleeping with a married woman and murdering a man, he wrote: “Deliver me from ...