Why the High Holidays? Why Not the Day of the Birthright Dance?!
By Tzvi Freeman
Why should our Jewishness be associated with solemnity, judgment and a growling stomach? Why not with who we really are--the people that dance with a book.
Simchat Torah (“The Joy of the Torah”) is the day when we finish the annual Torah-reading cycle and begin anew. Learn 15 facts that you may not have known!
For seven days of Sukkot, Jews walk around in circles, carrying an assortment of green and yellow flora. Then, on Simchat Torah, they dance in circles carrying Hebrew scrolls, working up to a frenzy.
It’s Yom Tov, and scores of Chabad chassidim are leaving the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn on foot—some walking as far as Queens and Upper Manhattan! No, it’s not some fitness craze. It’s Tahaluchah.
One holiday or two? Do we eat in the Sukkah? What are we celebrating?
On Yom Kippur, G‑d forgives us. A week and a half later, it is time to celebrate the atonement we've attained, time to rejoice with "the second tablets."
As in a marriage, when the wedding-party is over, the couple's true intimate life begins. Shemini Atzeret is described as the "time of intimacy with the Divine." At this time, we ask for rain - the symbol of intimacy between heaven and earth.
"I love my wife," said Berl. "That's why I do everything she asks me to do. She says, 'Berl, please take out the garbage,' and right away, I take out the garbage." We all agreed that Berl loves his wife.
An essay on why we dance in circles on Simchat Torah, and how this day celebrates—of all things—how Moses shattered the tablets in the aftermath of the Sin of the Golden Calf.
The source for our happiness on Simchat Torah, the center of attention, is of course the Torah. Yet, throughout the entire Hakkafos celebrations, the Torah is never opened...
On Simchat Torah, and during the coming year, I won’t be dwelling on hatred. Instead, I will focus my mind and heart on kindness, on unity, and on a renewed sense of Jewish pride
G‑d created many spiritual worlds filled with angels, who have a sophisticated understanding of spirituality. Beneath these spiritual worlds is the physical world, where we human beings exist. We have almost no awareness of G‑dliness at all, but we sustain all of the spiritual worlds with our mitzvahs.
For maximum effect, you need to deal with your 'challenge' from all sides. You need to focus the setting, gather your energy beforehand and then dispense it evenly and deliberately. A sudden spill of forceful energy in one area will never equate to careful attention to all details...
How could I feel such happiness, and feel as though their joy was my joy? I know that in part it’s because I prayed for it. When you pray for another person, it brings you closer to them, and one Jew’s joy is all of Israel’s joy, one Jew’s pain is all of Israel’s pain . . .