Person in the Parsha: Bereshit

October 02, 2026

By RABBI TZVI HERSH WEINREB

“CREATION CONVERSATION”

Anyone who has ever taught anything can confirm the adage of our Sages: “I have learned from all my teachers, but I have learned most from my...

Person in the Parsha: Bereshit

October 25, 2024

By RABBI TZVI HERSH WEINREB

“TO BE OR NOT TO BE?”

This week, we’ll read the story of the creation of the world in six days.

From the third day on, we...

After a year that divided many Jews, a Simchat Torah tradition of togetherness resumes in Brooklyn

October 23, 2024

By LUKE TRESS

(New York Jewish Week via JTA) — When more than a dozen Jewish groups convened last year in Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza for an annual celebration of Simchat Torah, tensions that would define the coming year were...

Simchat Torah 5785

October 23, 2024

By RABBI JOSEPH H. PROUSER

Last year’s October 7 attacks against the State of Israel by Hamas were perpetrated as Israelis celebrated Simchat Torah.  1200 innocents were murdered, hundreds taken hostage. Devastating war ensued. How we are properly to mark...

OP-ED: How to celebrate Simchat Torah when our hearts are weighed down by grief

October 21, 2024

By RABBI ELIE KAUNFER

(JTA) — How are we supposed to celebrate Simchat Torah this year with a full heart?

The very name of this holiday — “the joy of the Torah,” celebrating the completion of the annual Torah cycle...

Becoming the Torah

October 06, 2023

By RABBI JOSEPH H. PROUSER

My father, of blessed memory, served for decades as Gabbai of his congregation. He set up Kiddush, called worshippers to the Torah for aliyot, and – notably – carried the Torah Scroll in its ceremonial...

OP-ED: The Real Joy of Simchat Torah

October 06, 2023

By RABBI MOREY SCHWARTZ

(JNS.org) – As Succot draws to a close, the final day of celebration, known as Simchat Torah, engulfs the Jewish world in the celebration of the completion of the annual cycle of reading through the Torah from...

Simchat Torah: When the Torah cycle ended, their Russian-American romance began

October 16, 2022

By ALIX WALL

(JTA) — Tamar Caplan knew Alex Zeldin was the one when, a few months into dating, he asked if she knew why pigeons bob their heads.

“He had looked up the reason,” Caplan recalled. “I thought to...

OP-ED: Like America, Genesis has 2 creation stories. Simchat Torah renews our ability to tell them both

September 29, 2021

By RABBI RUTH ABUSCH-MAGDER 

(New York Jewish Week via JTA) — Everyone has at least a few creation stories: how they were born, how they came to the career they chose, how they met their loved one.

This week Jews...

OP-ED: On Simchat Torah: Lessons from Liudmila, a pandemic sage

October 09, 2020

By RABBI ALEX BRAVER

(JNS.org) – As we are about to celebrate Simchat Torah—a holiday defined by its communal gatherings, and the critical importance of physical proximity and traditions like dancing with the Torah—I find myself thinking of the...