On Oct. 14, 1663, the English civil servant Samuel Pepys decided to pay a visit to the Jewish synagogue in London’s Creechurch Lane. Jews were a novelty in Restoration England. They had been expelled from the realm nearly four centuries earlier, and it was only in 1656 that they had once again been permitted to live on English soil. Pepys, knowing nothing of Judaism, wasn’t aware that his excursion happened to coincide with the most euphoric day in the Jewish calendar – the festival of Simchat Torah, or “rejoicing with the Law.”
What he saw bewildered him.
“But, Lord!” he recorded in his famous diary, “to see the disorder, laughing, sporting, and no attention, but confusion in all their service, more like brutes than people knowing the true God, would make a man forswear ever seeing them more and indeed I never did see so much, or could have imagined there had been any religion in the whole world so absurdly performed as this.”
What Pepys had unwittingly walked in on was a celebration of the oldest love affair in history – the infatuation of the Jewish people with the Torah. In Judaism, there are no saints to adore or icons to venerate. Rather, there is a book to study and teach: the scroll of the law, the Torah given by God to Moses and the Israelites at Mount Sinai, the essential text with which Jews have engaged intellectually and been sustained emotionally for more than three millennia.
That book is “our most cherished possession,” writes Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, the noted British theologian and member of the House of Lords. “We stand in its presence as if it were a king. We dance with it as if it were a bride. We kiss it as if it were a friend. If, God forbid, one is damaged beyond repair, we mourn it as if it were a member of the family.” If a Torah scroll is accidentally dropped, everyone who witnesses it is expected to fast in penance. When a synagogue is burned, whether by accident or by arson, there is an immediate, palpable anxiety to know whether the Torah scrolls were saved or lost.
Simchat Torah occurs on the last day of a three-week sequence of fall holidays. It follows Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot. Unlike those holidays, however, Simchat Torah is not biblically ordained. It was not imposed by religious authorities from the top down, but grew organically from the bottom up. Its roots reach back 15 centuries to the ancient Jewish community of Babylonia, which formalized the practice of publicly reading the entire Torah – from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Deuteronomy – over the course of a year. The completion of the annual cycle became an occasion of joy, marked by singing and dancing around the synagogue with the Torah scrolls. Adults and children alike take part in the festivities. And as soon as the final verses of Deuteronomy are chanted from the end of one scroll, another is opened and the first chapter of Genesis is chanted: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” The Jewish engagement with the Torah never ends; as soon as we finish, we start again.
The “people of the book,” Jews are called. The phrase comes from the Koran, where it appears 31 times – an apt emphasis, for no nation has ever been as closely identified with a book as have Jews with the Torah. Sacks notes that by the time Simchat Torah had spread throughout the Jewish world, Jews had lost everything that would seem indispensable to national survival: land, sovereignty, political freedom, a military. Yet they still had their book to study and teach and rejoice with. Somehow, that was enough to keep Jewish peoplehood alive.
Three centuries after Pepys made his diary entry, another renowned writer encountered Jews celebrating Simchat Torah. In 1965, Elie Wiesel traveled to the Soviet Union, where Jews lived in fear and religion was repressed. And yet, he discovered, on one day of the year – Simchat Torah – throngs of young Jews streamed to the remaining synagogue in Moscow, bravely defying the KGB to openly celebrate their Jewishness.
Wiesel was astonished.
“Where did they all come from?” he marveled. “Who told them that tens of thousands of boys and girls would gather here to sing and dance and rejoice in the joy of the Torah? They who barely know each other and know even less of Judaism – how did they know that? I spent hours among them, dazed and excited, agitated by an ancient dream.” It was a harbinger of the coming struggle to save Soviet Jewry, which would eventually crack open the Iron Curtain and change the trajectory of the Cold War.
Simchat Torah returns this week amid a rising global tide of anti-Semitism. One year after the Tree of Life massacre in Pittsburgh, and just days after the Yom Kippur shooting in Halle, Germany, Jews increasingly require police protection when they gather in prayer. Nevertheless, synagogues the world over will be filled anew with the same euphoria that so startled Pepys and amazed Wiesel. The People of the Book will once again rejoice with the Law, dancing with the scrolls that have been, for 33 centuries, the ultimate source of their identity and strength.
This article originally appeared in the Boston Globe
Artwork above is by Chana Helen Rosenberg. Visit her site at www.chanahelen.com
(10) FrancesJ Maloney, October 19, 2020 7:07 PM
At Temple Israel/Boston when J. Jacoby wrote this last year
It was marvelous to be present by the dancing with the Torah. Have not been aware of continued rise in anti-Semitism, but expect the stringent, post- pandemic economy to increase pressure on all real estate, media space, and other economic goods. Plus, there may be need for some slack, in business morals and ethics. May honorable livelihoods abound in the wake of COVID-19!
(9) Anonymous, October 13, 2020 1:16 AM
God's Word is Alive!
I can really relate to this article. On several occasions while reading or after reading God's Word I can feel the life comming from the pages! I laugh, cry (for joy) I hug & kiss my book of God's Word. It is alive! It's food & drink, it's the air you breath, it's your best friend-The God breathed word of Truth! It is beautiful ! And I'm not even Jewish-I thank God for giving this Treasure to the Jewish people because eventually it got to anyone who wanted to know the, "Real Truth!" Thank God! Amen.
(8) Rachel, October 9, 2020 5:51 PM
And now a long distance love affair
Our love now will be shown by praying at home or gathering in much smaller groups, while wearing masks. Pandemics come and go. The Torah is eternal. It lives in each of us.
(7) David Frank Bartl, October 7, 2020 4:02 PM
We are so truly blessed being Jewish.
Shalom, Shalom, Shalom...........thank you, thank you, thank you!
(6) Anonymous, October 21, 2019 3:42 PM
a humble scholar from Hyderabad, India
Profoundly moved by Jeff Jacoby's Boston Globe article, "Oldest Love Story.." Devoid of self pitying, Judaism gives me solace, peace of mind &
reading your columns by learned Jewish scholars, writers keeps me going.
Thank you very kindly. I'm a recent convert to Judaism; 77 years old, enduring lung cancer, numerous surgeries, striving to make ends meet. Reading, learning about Judaism, how Jews overcame the worst, made lies livable, reached out, became philanthropic and epitomized all that's making life dignified, worth living leaves me humbled, astonished & even inspired. I am infinitely grateful to these Aish articles I read religiously on my computer. Thank you & may the Almighty keep Jews out of harm's way & bless you for all the good you do even to souls like myself.
(5) Rachel, October 20, 2019 4:19 PM
Women love the Torah, too
I am not someone who always complains about lack of inclusivity, but this article really hit me: Whete does this leave Jewish women? In most places where I have lived, on Simchat Torah we are relegated to the sidelines. We don’t kiss the Torah, carry it nor dance with it. I am not suggesting that we should read it in shul or do other activities that are not mitzvot for women. But modestly dancing in the company of other women in a separate room is permitted, yet most communities do not permit it. An exception was when I lived on the Upper West Side. Torahs were paraded through the streets from several shuls. West End Avenue was closed off. And Jewish women proudly and joyously danced with our Torah.
Raymond, October 21, 2019 10:34 PM
There's No Place Like Home
Dorothy of the Wizard of Oz really got it right when she ultimately realized that "There is no place like home." For us Jews, the center of Jewish life is not in the synagogue nor anywhere else in the public sphere, but is rather our Jewish homes. And there is no question that at least in the best of Jewish homes, it is women who rule. The song got it right when it sang how "A happy wife is a happy life." And women are happiest, when they have a happy home life, a successful marriage, all of which largely takes place in one's home. And even when it comes to the Torah, the best way to celebrate it is to study it, something that also mostly takes place in one's home.
Ra'anan, October 8, 2020 2:08 PM
my wife, G-d bless her, she...
brings our grandchildren & fills them with warmth & excitement & love. B"SD
She gives them their toy sefer Torah & ushers them to the door of our schul & calls me to come & pick them up, from her hands to my hands. Whenever I steal a quick glance at the ladies section, I can see her eyes sparkling. All she wants is our children & grandchildren to love Torah. Around & around & around we dance in our cosy, intimate schul with our grandchildren & sons, going higher & higher, making circles of love to last us another year.
(4) Hal, October 20, 2019 2:35 PM
Pirke Avot on the Torah:
“Turn it, and turn it, for everything is in it. Reflect on it and grow old and gray with it. Don’t turn from it, for nothing is better than it.
(3) Judy R., October 20, 2019 3:46 AM
Simchat Torah the oldest love affair in history
I think Simchat Torah is linked to the holiday of Shavout ,where we read "Song Of Songs", which is a allegory between Hashem and the Jewish people and the Torah(is like G-d is the groom the Jewish people is like bride and the Torah is the marriage contract),we rejoice because Hashem chose us as his people and we got his precious gift of the Torah, and we never stop reading it or the prophets every week we read both, and after Simchat Torah we start the cycle again. We circle around the shul 7 times like a bride circles the groom, at the chuppah and this is so beautiful to see. Is this the oldest love affair in history well it is not, it is a pure love and holy love not a affair but a commitment. It is a legal commitment, that is serious from both sides not a love affair but something else, similar to what is written in "Songs Of Songs" like kind of a marriage which is also has love. In a way there is a love that is pure and holy, not an affair but more permanent than a mere love affair. We are still in love together Hashem his people and his Torah. Happy Simchat Torah to all!
Raymond, October 21, 2019 10:29 PM
Song of Songs
Well, actually, King Solomon's three most famous works are read in the following order: Song of Songs on Passover, Proverbs on Shavuot, and Ecclesiastes (Kohelet) on Sukkot. And Kohelet is particularly suited to Sukkot, as both consider the material world to be frivolous. We are to learn to move away from depending on our material possessions and toward G-d for our feelings of trust and security.
(2) Raymond, October 19, 2019 3:22 PM
Some Things to Consider
Concerning the Torah, here are some things to consider:
1) It is widely accepted even among secular scholars that the two biggest influences on creating and shaping Western Society have been the Ancient Greeks and the Jews. Not too shabby since we Jews make up far less than 1% of the world's population.
2) To best understand any given group of people, study their origins. For example, the best way to understand America, is to examine the lives and ideas of its greatest Founding Fathers such as George Washington and so on. Similarly, the best way to understand we Jews, who I just said have had such a major impact on the world, is to study our origins, which of course is revealed in our Torah
3) The deeds of our forefathers are a sign for the generations, meaning that what our Jewish founders did, set the standard which all Jews abide by on some level, whether they realize it or not. Thus Abraham's kindness, welcoming guests, and challenging the status quo, are traits that can be found in strong doses in our Jewish people.
4) Thus the best way to understand not only our Jewish people, but why the world is the way it is, is to study our own Torah. The more we study it, the more wisdom we will have. And true wisdom is worth more than all of the diamonds and accolades that any of us could possibly acquire.
Clifton, October 20, 2019 2:28 PM
Agree
Thank you for that. It provided me with something to think about today.
“ The more we study it, the more wisdom we will have. And true wisdom is worth more than all of the diamonds and accolades that any of us could possibly acquire.”
(1) Chana Helen Rosenberg, October 18, 2019 1:02 PM
Credit for art work
B"H
Credit for art work, 'Simchat Torah 1' to Chana Helen Rosenberg. www.chanahelen.com
Chaya, October 20, 2019 7:32 AM
So lovely !
Beautiful art for a beautiful article !
Chag Sameach !
Shuch Bunny, October 9, 2020 4:49 AM
Beautiful!
The artwork is so beautiful and is a wonderful expression of the joy of the holiday.