Dear Friends,
It is almost Shabbat (yay) and also almost Shmini Atzeret and Simchat Torah. Today I want to talk a little bit about Simchat Torah. The following essay is a draft chapter (which may totally change and that’s ok because things change did you know?) of what will be in my forthcoming book.
Speaking of which…
thank you to everyone who has donated! We are almost at the $4k mark and we have a bit to go until we hit the goal of $7. SO, if you are willing and able, send over some money (which is really just a physical manifestation of value). Send over some value by:
CLICKING HERE :) ←smiley face
Shabbat Shalom!
Love, Meg
Aside from singing and dancing, on Simchat Torah the big production is unrolling and rerolling the Torah. We celebrate completing another cycle of reading by, well, reading! We start with V’zot Habracha, the last parasha (portion) from the Book of D’varim/Deuteronomy and then immediately follow that up with a reading from the beginning of Bereshit, the first parasha from the Book of Bereshit/Genesis.
Cycles. There is no beginning and there is no end. To everything, turn, turn, turn (The Byrds read Torah). Like the cycles of the moon or the seasons, the scroll winds and winds but never starts or stops.
Except, something else happens on Simchat Torah. We read the first chapter of the Book of Joshua. Joshua is Moses’ successor and the leader who will take the Israelites into the Promised Land. The Torah, as in the Five Books of Moses (the scroll we are unrolling and rerolling), ends with the death of Moses. The Book of Joshua starts with just that – the first line is literally, “After the death of Moses…” Because in fact there is an after. It doesn’t only begin again. The story continues. The Israelites enter the land. There are new spies who meet a new harlot, Rachav. There is Samson and Delilah, Yael with her bloody peg and hammer, David and Goliath, Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem, Queens Esther and Vashti, and Daniel who is put into a lion’s den! There is so much more to the story! So, we keep reading it while simultaneously starting over.
This tension between historical and cyclical time is mirrored in the Jewish calendar which is a lunar/solar hybrid. The months are based on the movement of the moon. Each new moon means a new month–Rosh Chodesh. But, in order to keep the seasons and the historical holidays for those seasons in the same place, we have to adjust the calendar so it lines up with the movement of the sun. In his foundational work, The Jewish Holidays, Rabbi Michael Strassfeld explains how this works:
“The Jewish calendar is basically cyclic in its dependance on the moon. However, it is adjusted at regular intervals to keep the festivals in their proper seasons–e.g., Pesach in the spring. The workings of the calendar with its lunar/solar complexity reflect the mixture of both kinds of time throughout the year. Pesach is cyclic, but it is also historical, for the Exodus was seen by the tradition as a verifiable event.”1
In other words, our entire sense of the year is a balance between cycles and history. Strassfeld argues that the balance achieved by these two kinds of time is exactly what we need:
“We need the process of self-evaluation called forth by historical time to rouse us to change and thus foster creation and progress. Without that, it would be easy to become increasingly sedentary both spiritually and physically as our lives passed us by… On the other hand, we need cycle time to give us perspective on the dangers of constantly seeking progress due to an unbridled devotion to the movement of historical time…Particularly in our day, the sense of cyclic time is a necessary balance to the pressures in our society to succeed. If historical time teaches us that to be alive is to move, cyclic time teaches us that sometimes to wait in place is more important than moving on.”2
At this moment of Simchat Torah, we beautifully experience both the cyclic and historical nature of torah. Torah embodies both versions of time.
All of this talk of balance is making we think about that classic Hasidic teaching from Rabbi Simcha Bunem:
“It was said of Reb Simcha Bunem, a 18th century Hasidic rebbe, that he carried two slips of paper, one in each pocket. One was inscribed with the saying from the Talmud: Bishvili nivra ha-olam, ‘for my sake the world was created.’ On the other he wrote a phrase from our father Avraham in the Torah: V’anokhi afar v’efer,’ ‘I am but dust and ashes.’ He would take out and read each slip of paper as necessary for the moment.”3
I am but dust and ashes–seasons come and seasons go– and for my sake the world was created–this is my moment in history. Both thoughts are necessary to regulate our lives. A balance of humility and audacity. “A time for seeking and a time for losing, A time for keeping and a time for discarding; A time for ripping and a time for sewing, A time for silence and a time for speaking.”4 This balance is ancient wisdom and guidance for how to be in this world. This balance is also torah.
Rabbi Michael Strassfeld, The Jewish Holidays: A Guide And Commentary (William Morrow: New York, NY: 1985), 107.
Ibid.
Martin Buber, Tales of the Hasidim: Later Masters (New York: Schocken Books, 1961), 249-250.
Kohelet 3:6-7