Dancing (and trying to steal) the Torah

Last night the holiday of Simchat Torah began. It is when the Jews celebrate the completion of reading the entire Torah, after a year of weekly readings. So, on Saturday, we begin anew with Genesis.

The thing that is so wonderful about Simchat Torah is that it is a real celebration. This is a holiday where the Torahs come out of their arks and members of the synagogue take turns holding them and dancing with them. The congregation dances circles around them again and again and again.

We went to our "usual" shul, Kol HaNeshama, last night. The girls had made flags with pictures with the Torah on them, and we told them that there would be lots of dancing and parades with flag waving, so they took their flags with them to shul.

The short service ended. The entire interior of the sanctuary was cleared of chairs. The Torahs came out and the dancing began. Sometimes a frenzy, sometimes a dance, concentric circles dancing in different directions, changing all the time. One of my loveliest memories of the evening is when our friend Frankie held Miriam in one arm, my hand in the other, and an older woman in her 60s held Mim's hand during the dancing during "Am Israel Chai." That's basically the song, by the way, where we sing that phrase over and over, and every time the work "chai" (life) was song, the lady would raise up Mim's hand and both of them would smile the biggest smiles at each other.

It was a bit much for Silvie, who was quite overwhelmed by the end. I think we couldn't have explained it clearly to her, since she had no frame of reference, but she probably was hoping for an old fashioned American parade, not this frenzy.

The dancing moved outside after about 45 minutes, but we left at that point.

Before we left, someone told me this story: when Kol HaNeshema was at its original location in the neighborhood, and a fairly new synagogue, and the only Reform synagogue around, a local Ashkenazi orthodox rabbi and a local Sephardi orthodox rabbi decided that they could not have this reform shul in their midst. They decided that they must steal the Torahs from Kol HaNeshema. So, on Simchat Torah, they made their way into where the synagogue was celebrating, and took the Torahs. However, since it was Simchat Torah, they congregation danced circles around them such that they couldn't leave! Thus, the synagogue foiled the Torah thefts and remained the Reform shul in the neighborhood.

I have to also mention that this was one of the loveliest nights we have had in Jerusalem as well. I loved being part of this community, and celebrating the holiday, but we also celebrated afterwards with our "community" of friends: Julie, Laura and Frankie came over for a meal. All of us emigrated from Boston, and though Frankie hadn't met Laura and Julie before, they had a lot of mutual friends and connections. We laughed a LOT and it was one of those magical meals where everyone bathes in each other's company and no back stories are necessary.

Here are the girls with their flags, right before we left for service, in the photos above.