Simchat Torah
Dancing! Singing! Epic Torah readings! Simchat Torah is time of mystical, transcendent fun. Uncover the deepest meanings of Simchat Torah and Shemini Atzeret.
Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah 2024: Wednesday Evening, October 23-25
The joy of Sukkot reaches its peak during its final days. At the conclusion of the Torah reading cycle, we dance with the Torah during Hakafot. These autumn festivals are a celebration of reuniting with the Creator and transcending our personal boundaries. During Simchat Torah, dancing is a form of repentance — we return to our purest selves through uninhibited joy. Discover the mystical, Kabbalistic meaning of these joyous days in the Meaningful Life Center’s archives.
MP3 Class: Sukkot and Simchat Torah – Joy
Simchat-Torah: From Chickens to Vegetables
As we move right along from fauna to flora, from swirling chickens before Yom Kippur to thrusting shrubs on Sukkot, the holidays have an organic nature…
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Absorbing The Joy: The Significance of Shemini Atzeret
Sukkot is followed by a day in which our joy reaches its peak and the holiday that preceded this day is internalized.
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Simchat Torah: Absolute Passion in the Face of Complacency
As we enter the climax of the High Holiday season we are challenged to ask ourselves: What do we stand for, what do we fight for? Movingly discussed here…
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Moses’ Choice
Moses’ breaking of the tablets was an act endorsed by G-d. How is the breaking of the covenant between G-d and the Jewish people an achievement of Moses?
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Torah In The Winter
On Simchat Torah we read Vezot Haberachah in conclusion of the annual Torah-reading cycle. It is the day of rejoicing the Torah, but not of receiving it.
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The Marriage Contract
Breaking the tablets symbolized a severing of the relationship between G-d and the Jewish people, an act which constitutes Moses’ greatest achievement
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A Shattering Reunion
It is told of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev that one year after Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah, he stayed up all night waiting to put on tefillin.
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Dancing with the Torah
Dancing with the Torah caused the Torah to become deeply embedded into my life, part of the weave and warp of my being.
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Daughters Near and Far: The Atzeret of Sukkot
Our receiving of the Torah on Shavuot is the “Atzeret” of our liberation from slavery seven weeks earlier.
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Fire: A Narrative by Rabbi Pinchas Reizes of Shklov
Rabbi Pinchas Reizes of Shklov tells a story of a miracle on Simchat Torah.
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