Tuesday, November 5th 2024   |

Simchat Torah

Person in the Parsha: Bereshit

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By RABBI ALEX BRAVER

– 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...

Again

By RABBI JOSEPH H. PROUSER

In one of my family’s favorite movies, “The Princess Bride,” Inigo Montoya (played by Mandy Patinkin) avers: “You told me to go back to the beginning, so I have.” His statement represents a turning point....