SEPTEMBER 23 • 2021 | 37

Simchat Torah begins Tuesday 
evening, Sept. 28.
S

imchat Torah, celebrated 
the day after Shemini 
Atzeret in the diaspora 
(and combined into one day 
in Israel), is unique among 
festivals. 
 It is not 
mentioned in 
the Torah, nor 
in the Talmud. 
Unlike Purim and 
Chanukah, it was 
not formalized 
by any decision 
on the part of 
the religious 
authorities, nor does it 
commemorate any historical 
deliverance.
It grew from the grassroots, 
slowly developing over time. It 
was born in Babylon, probably 
at the end of the period of 
the Amora’im, the rabbis of 
the Talmud, in the fifth or 
sixth century. The Babylonian 
custom — now universal — 
was to divide the Torah into 54 
portions to be read in the course 
of a year (in Israel there was a 
three or three-and-a-half-year 
cycle).
On the second day of Shemini 
Atzeret in Babylon (there was no 
second day in Israel), the custom 
was to read the last portion 
of the Torah, in which Moshe 
blessed the nation at the end 
of his life. It had long been the 
custom to make a celebration on 
completing a section of study, a 
Talmudic tractate, or an order of 
the Mishnah (Shabbat 118b).
Thus, the custom evolved 
to make a celebration at the 

completion of the Mosaic 
books, and it was considered a 
great honor to be called to the 
Torah for this last portion. The 
celebration became known as 
Simchat Torah.
The emergence of Simchat 
Torah signals something 
remarkable. You may have 
noticed that Sukkot and Shemini 
Atzeret are both described as 
zeman simchateinu, the season 
of our joy. The nature of that 
joy was clear and signaled in 
different ways both by the 
sukkah and by the Four Species.
The sukkah reminded the 
people how blessed they were 
to be living in Israel when they 
recalled how their ancestors had 
to live for 40 years without a 
land or a permanent home. The 
lulav, etrog, hadassim and aravot 
were a vivid demonstration 
of the fruitfulness of the land 

under the divine blessing of rain. 

EXILE IN BABYLON
The joy of Sukkot was the 
joy of living in the Promised 
Land. But by the time Simchat 
Torah had spread throughout 
the Jewish world, Jews had lost 
virtually everything: their land, 
their home, their freedom and 
independence, the Temple, the 
priesthood, the sacrificial order 
— all that had once been their 
source of joy.
A single devastating sentence 
in one of the piyutim of Ne’ilah 
(at the close of Yom Kippur), 
summed up their situation: 
Ein shiur rak haTorah hazot, 
“Nothing remains but this 
Torah.
” All that remained was a 
book.
How could we find joy if we 
had lost everything as a people? 
Sa’adia Gaon, writing in the 10th 

century, asked a simple question. 
In virtue of what were the 
Jewish people still a nation?
It had none of the normal 
preconditions of a nation. Jews 
were scattered throughout the 
world. They did not live in the 
same territory. They were not 
part of a single economic or 
political order. They did not 
share the same culture.
They did not speak the same 
language. Rashi spoke French, 
Rambam Arabic. Yet they were, 
and were seen to be, one nation, 
bound by a bond of collective 
destiny and responsibility.
Hence, Sa’adia concluded: 
Our people are a people only 
in virtue of our Torah (Beliefs 
and Opinions, 3). In the lovely 
rabbinic phrase about the Ark 
which contained the tablets, 
“It carried those who carried 
it” (Sotah 35a). More than the 

CAMELEONSEYE/ISTOCK

Simchat Torah: 
The Antidote for Despair

Rabbi 
Jonathan 
Sachs

Israelis celebrate Simchat Torah by dancing with the scrolls at a synagogue in Sderot, the town that has 
been a frequent target of Hamas rocket attacks from nearby Gaza.

SPIRIT
A WORD OF TORAH

continued on page 38

