Simchas Torah - the Inner Meaning of the Holiday in Light of Chassidus

00:00 Speaker 1 Simchas Torah is the most wonderful day in terms of the deepest bond formed between a Jew and Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The Zohar tells us that Shemini Atzeres is the day when “Yisroel and the King are alone together”—the Jewish people and Hakadosh Boruch Hu are together exclusively, just the two of them, united in the most wonderful and profound way. And from there bursts forth the greatest joy: a Jew takes a Torah scroll, dances with it, and rejoices with it, because at that moment there is only the Jew and Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and through the Torah they become one single reality. So today we’re going to explore what Simchas Torah really is. Why is Simchas Torah such an exalted, joyous day? What is the reason for the tremendous joy we celebrate on Simchas Torah? At first glance, there’s a simple question: rejoicing on the festivals throughout the year is a Torah mitzvah. The Torah says, “You shall rejoice on your festival,” and that applies to Pesach, Shavuos, and Sukkos. Yet we don’t see joy bursting through every boundary on all the festivals. The Gemara says that there is no rejoicing except with meat, and no rejoicing except with wine; we also need to buy gifts for our wives and children. These are different ways of celebrating. But this joy that bursts through every boundary, with dancing for hours on end—we don’t find it on any of the other festivals, not even Sukkos, though Sukkos is called “the time of our rejoicing.” It happens specifically on Simchas Torah. And this is a Jewish custom, as the halachic works say: it is customary to rejoice and dance in celebration of the Torah. It is a custom of the Jewish people. But what is the reason for this joy? We have a few simple questions about Simchas Torah that we want to understand. When we understand them deeply, we’ll see that Simchas Torah is really the culmination of

02:20 Speaker 1 all the festivals of the month of Tishrei, the high point at which a Jew’s connection with Hakadosh Boruch Hu reaches its deepest and most wonderful form. That is the reason for the boundless joy we see in Jewish communities everywhere. So let’s look at the distinctive way we celebrate Simchas Torah. It’s very interesting: in Jewish communities everywhere, people celebrate with a closed Torah scroll, covered by its mantle, and dance around the reading platform. That is more or less the practice throughout the Jewish world. And the obvious question is: we’re talking about Torah. What is Torah? Torah is wisdom. Torah is “your wisdom and understanding in the eyes of the nations.” Torah is the wisdom and will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. How should we celebrate the Torah? We would expect to sit and learn—to study Torah, develop new insights, toil over it, delve into it. Yet Simchas Torah is the day when we learn less than on other days of the year. Jews are busy dancing, celebrating, and holding festive meals. The joy breaks through every boundary, including the boundaries of the clock. So the question is: what does this have to do with celebrating the Torah? Why do we celebrate Simchas Torah specifically with a closed scroll that we aren’t studying, dancing with it and spending hours upon hours dancing and rejoicing instead of sitting and learning? Another simple question about Simchas Torah is: what does it have to do with Shemini Atzeres? Why this day, all of a sudden? What happened? Why did we think of it now? After all, the giving of the Torah took place on Shavuos. That’s when we should have celebrated Simchas Torah. We received the Torah on Shavuos. Hashem descended upon Mount Sinai. Hashem gave us the Ten Commandments on 6 Sivan, and in our prayers we call it “the time of the giving of our Torah.” So that’s when we should have celebrated Simchas Torah. Why—why wait until now for this celebration? Shemini Atzeres,

04:33 Speaker 1 this is specifically the time to finish the Torah, right? It’s when we finish reading the Torah scroll. But that itself needs to be understood: why do we finish reading the Torah then? When the Sages instituted the laws of Torah reading, why did they arrange the readings so that we finish on Shemini Atzeres? They could have arranged the calendar and the entire cycle so that we finished reading the Torah on Shavuos and then celebrated with joy and dancing. No—Shemini Atzeres. What is the connection? This is where we need to explore the matter more deeply. First, from a historical perspective, to understand how Shemini Atzeres relates to rejoicing over the Torah at this time, we know that receiving the Torah was a whole process. It wasn’t until Yom Kippur that we finally received the second tablets. Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave the Torah, the Ten Commandments, on Shavuos, but after that we still went through an entire process. Moshe Rabbeinu came down with the first tablets on 17 Tammuz, but because of the sin of the Golden Calf, he broke them. Then he prayed, and so on, until on Yom Kippur Moshe Rabbeinu came down with the second tablets and Hakadosh Boruch Hu told him, “I have forgiven, as you said.” So, as many sefarim explain, the joy of Shemini Atzeres and Simchas Torah is our joy over the second tablets—over receiving them. But this, too, needs to be understood: why do we rejoice over the tablets we received on Yom Kippur, rather than over the beginning, that great day? Especially since, at the giving of the Torah, we were all righteous. It was before the sins; we hadn’t yet had the whole upheaval of the Golden Calf. The Jewish people were like a newborn child. Surely that moment, when Hashem gave the Torah amid thunder and lightning and the entire Jewish people stood before the mountain, should have been the most beautiful, joyous day, and that is when

06:35 Speaker 1 the dancing and celebration would have been fitting. Instead, we wait through that whole—through that entire process until Yom Kippur, and only then dance? And another question: why don’t we celebrate Simchas Torah like that the day after Yom Kippur? I understand that on Yom Kippur itself

08:15 Speaker 2 of searching and meeting. There is a process here that begins in the month of Elul, when a Jew seeks to return home. The son is looking for his father, and the father is looking for his son. A distance has developed over the course of the year: because of how we behaved, we grew apart. The son has become distant from the father, and the father from the son, and then the search begins. “A wise son seeks his father.” First there is the wise son, who doesn’t give up. He searches and searches and searches, saying, “I want my father.” That search begins already in Elul: “Let us search our ways and examine them.” Elul is the month of teshuvah, the month of taking stock, when a Jew searches deeper into his inner soul day by day. It’s the month of teshuvah, and the process continues. The chapter we’ve been saying all these weeks, from the beginning of Elul until Hoshana Rabbah, is, according to the custom, chapter 27 of Tehillim, “A Psalm of David: Hashem is my light and my salvation.” There we say the well-known verse: “On Your behalf my heart says, ‘Seek My face’; Your face, Hashem, I seek.” In other words, throughout Elul and Tishrei—all those fifty-one days until Hoshana Rabbah—we have been engaged in a search: seeking the inner depths of our hearts, the inner depths of our souls, and the inner meaning of “Your face, Hashem”—the innermost dimension of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And these two things depend on each other; they are connected. The moment we reveal the inner depths of our own souls, we also reveal the innermost dimension of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, because a Jew is truly “a part of G-d above.” The Jew and Hakadosh Boruch Hu are, in essence, one reality, one point. The deepest part of a Jew’s soul, what is called the yechidah of the soul, unites with the Yachid—with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, who is one, singular and unique. This connection is what we make through the

10:31 Speaker 2 This grows stronger day by day. Rosh Hashanah arrives, and there is the cry of the shofar, when the inner essence, the soul, awakens in every Jew. During the Ten Days of Teshuvah, we bring that into the details, down to the smallest details, correcting our actions, until Yom Kippur—“once a year,” with “one” alluding to yechidah, as Tosafos says in Tractate Menachos, page 18. That “one” is the soul called yechidah. On Yom Kippur, a Jew’s one and only essence, the yechidah of the soul, is revealed, and then he unites with the oneness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. After Yom Kippur comes the day of connection. It is the day of the meeting, which begins with all the work of teshuvah on Yom Kippur. It comes from the deepest bitterness of the search and the relationship a Jew builds with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and reaches its climax on Yom Kippur, at the Ne’ilah prayer. As we discussed, Ne’ilah means that the gates are locked and the Jew is alone together with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Then begins the embrace of love. “A wise son brings joy to his father,” as King Solomon says in Mishlei. The tremendous joy a father feels when his wise son has searched for him and found him. With that meeting, the process of joy begins, and that is what happens after Yom Kippur. This is true teshuvah, as we discussed in the teaching of the Baal Shem Tov: teshuvah is not only about sins and transgressions. The essence of teshuvah is that the soul returns to its Father’s home as in its youth. The soul returns to its innermost depths, returns to itself, returns to its innermost depths, and there it encounters the innermost depths of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. They unite and merge into one reality, and from there the process of joy begins. Until Yom Kippur, we are constantly moving upward, searching, until we find what we seek. The Ne’ilah prayer is the connection. Then the stages of joy begin, bringing that joy into our lives, and that too takes

12:44 Speaker 2 an entire process, until we bring it to the deepest place. That is what the seven days of Sukkos are about, followed by the eighth day, Shemini Atzeres. Regarding the seven days of Sukkos, the Torah tells us: “You shall dwell for seven days.” A Jew sits in the sukkah. The sukkah symbolizes the embrace; it symbolizes love. The sukkah has walls and a roof of s’chach. As it says in the sefarim, the idea of the sukkah is “the sukkah of Your peace.” It expresses the great embrace with which Hakadosh Boruch Hu embraces every Jew. As Reb Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev says, the sukkah is described as needing two walls and a handbreadth, or three walls and a handbreadth, depending on the opinion. Reb Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev says that this is the shape of an embrace. If we look at a physical embrace, there is the person’s body, then the arm and hand, and then the palm—which corresponds to three walls and a handbreadth, the palm. This expresses that great embrace of Hakadosh Boruch Hu: “And His right hand embraces me.” As King Solomon says in Shir Hashirim: “His left hand is beneath my head, and His right hand embraces me.” The Alter Rebbe, the author of Tanya, explains: “His left hand is beneath my head” refers to Rosh Hashanah, the time of the left. The left pushes away; it is the quality of awe. The Days of Awe are a time when awe awakens in a Jew, and this is associated with the left hand. “His left hand is beneath my head”: the head, the soul of a Jew, awakens through the awe stirred during these days. As we discussed, this is not fear of punishment; it is awe of Hashem’s greatness. But that is “His left hand is beneath my head.” Then the second half of Tishrei arrives, and “His right hand embraces me”—the great embrace with which Hakadosh Boruch Hu embraces us. “Then the maiden shall rejoice in the dance.” For seven days a Jew is in the sukkah, eating, drinking, sleeping, and carrying out all his activities there, surrounded by the great embrace of Hakadosh Boruch

14:57 Speaker 2 Hu. And he learns that even when he eats, even when he sleeps, and even when he goes for a walk, he is surrounded by Hakadosh Boruch Hu. He brings Hakadosh Boruch Hu into his everyday life. Alongside this great joy, there are also the four species. As we discussed, the point of the lulav and the four species is to bring it into the heart—to bring all of this, this great love, deep into the heart: “And you shall take for yourselves.” Then comes the eighth day, an alef above a zayin. After seven comes eight. The number eight expresses what is beyond nature. Seven is the seven days of the week. Seven symbolizes boundaries: the seven days of the week, the seven years of the Shemitah cycle. The number seven is the seven days of Creation. All of this is connected with nature. Eight symbolizes the infinite. Eight expresses breaking through boundaries, for the eighth day arrives—the alef above the zayin. So the idea of eight is the deepest, unlimited connection formed between Hakadosh Boruch Hu and the Jewish people. That is why the joy is unlimited joy. Regarding Shemini Atzeres, the Alter Rebbe gives a wonderful explanation of what the word Atzeres means. Atzeres means a festival. When the Torah speaks of an atzeres, it means to stop, as Rashi says—to refrain from work—and to stop in order to gather and celebrate. That is the idea of atzeres, a kind of festival. But there is more to the word Atzeres. Atzeres also carries the sense of absorbing something. When someone says, “Stop,” the idea is to pause, to pause so that you can absorb something more deeply. “On the eighth day, it shall be an atzeres for you.” The Alter Rebbe explains that this is the day when a Jew absorbs everything inwardly. In other words, he internalizes, in the deepest part of himself, everything that has happened over the past two months: everything that happened in Elul, everything that happened during the days of Selichos, Rosh Hashanah, the Ten Days of

17:21 Speaker 2 Teshuvah, Yom Kippur, the four days between Yom Kippur and Sukkos, the days of Sukkos, and Hoshana Rabbah. Then Shemini Atzeres arrives. This is the day when we absorb and internalize it all. We take all of it and bring it deep, deep inside, into our hearts, into our souls. Absorbing it means preserving it, holding on to it, and from it we draw strength for the entire year. The joy of Shemini Atzeres is the wonderful joy of a Jew rejoicing with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu rejoicing with the Jew. At these moments, the deepest point awakens... On this day of Shemini Atzeres, the deepest point of a Jew’s bond with Hakadosh Boruch Hu awakens. We see this in the offerings of Shemini Atzeres as well. We see something remarkable: during Sukkos there were many offerings, many. Look at the verses read in the Torah reading for Sukkos. There are many offerings, particularly the bulls. As the Midrashim say, there were seventy bulls corresponding to the seventy nations of the world, representing the flow of life to the entire world during Sukkos. Then Shemini Atzeres arrives. The Torah says, “On the eighth day, it shall be an atzeres for you.” And what is offered? One bull, one ram. Here there are no great numbers, just one bull and one ram. The Midrash says: corresponding to Israel. All the bulls and offerings were connected with the nations of the world, with the flow of life to all the nations of the world. “Praise Hashem, all you nations; extol Him, all you peoples.” All of that is during Sukkos. Shemini Atzeres, as we said earlier from the Zohar, is “for you.” In fact, the Midrash says that here too. Midrash Rabbah on Parshas Emor tells us that this is what happens on Shemini Atzeres. It is like a king who made a feast and invited all the people of his country. For seven days, the king celebrated with all the people of the country. The eighth day arrived. The king said, “The celebration is over, it is over”

19:31 Speaker 2 The meal. He calls his closest, dearest friend and says to him, “The official celebration is over. Now come, let’s make do with what’s here, just you and me. Come, now we’ll celebrate, you and me.” And that is what the Midrash means when it says, “The eighth day shall be an assembly for you.” On this day, that wondrous choice is revealed—a choice that actually began on Rosh Hashanah. On Rosh Hashanah we already said, “He will choose our inheritance for us.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu chose the Jewish people at the sounding of the shofar. When we sounded the shofar: “He will choose our inheritance for us, the pride of Yaakov whom He loves forever.” But that was in shul. It was still concealed, still covered. Yom Kippur, in the Holy of Holies—that too was once a year, as we discussed, but it was in the Holy of Holies, a place of extraordinary holiness and exaltation. Here, though, we bring it down into the world, so that it shines throughout the world and is revealed in the most open and public way. “It shall be an assembly for you.” When a Jew comes to Simchas Torah, we take the Torah scroll, and it is the Jew who dances with it—specifically while it is covered. What are we expressing by this? When we study wisdom, there are limits. Intellect has limits. Each person has their own intellect; some are wiser, some less so, and each person learns, understands, and grasps according to their capacity. However wise and profound a person may be, ultimately our wisdom is limited, and so our joy will be limited too. But when we come to Simchas Torah, this is not merely limited joy. What is revealed here is the joy of a Jew’s deeper, more inward connection with Hakadosh Boruch Hu—not with limited wisdom, but with infinite wisdom, with the Torah as it is, so to speak, with Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself. After all, the Torah is a hidden treasure,

21:43 Speaker 2 which is, in essence, one with Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself, beyond all understanding and comprehension. In this deepest connection between a Jew and Hakadosh Boruch Hu through the Torah, the joy is unlimited. That is why we dance with our feet precisely when the Torah scroll is closed. This expresses the power of a Jew’s feet—the power of action, the power to bring things into our world. A Jew’s feet are what lift even the head. They give a Jew the strength to rejoice, and with that strength, a Jew has healthy feet with which to walk. “And Yaakov went on his way” after Simchas Torah: to take those feet with which I danced and rejoiced with the Torah—and not only rejoiced with the Torah, but brought joy to the Torah. The Frierdiker Rebbe used to say that Simchas Torah does not only mean that the Jew rejoices with the Torah; it means that the Torah rejoices. It is the Torah’s joy. The Torah wants to dance. The Torah rejoices when Jews study it. The Torah rejoices that Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave it to us, and it wants to dance. It asks the Jew to take it and dance. So, as it were, the Jew becomes the Torah’s feet, because the Torah wants to dance. All this happens on Simchas Torah. The Alter Rebbe tells us in a maamar of Chassidus that Shemini Atzeres, Simchas Torah, is the day on which every Jew receives the abundance that will guide their Torah study and service of Hashem throughout the entire year. Listen to the wonderful words of the Alter Rebbe. On Shemini Atzeres, Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives every Jew the abundance for their conduct in Torah and mitzvos for the entire year. He says that this is why we say, “He causes the rain to fall.” We recite the prayer for rain on Shemini Atzeres, Simchas Torah, because

23:56 Speaker 2 the prayer for rain symbolizes the rains of blessing through which Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives every Jew the abundance for their conduct in Torah and mitzvos. And after “If you walk in My statutes,” Hakadosh Boruch Hu promises us, “I will give your rains in their season.” So all the rains—which include all material needs and all blessings—come through the great joy of Simchas Torah. And the Rebbe Rashab also told us that when a Jew dances during Simchas Torah, dancing more and more—for the mitzvah of the day is rejoicing—with those dances we draw up barrels full of blessing and abundance for the entire year, both materially and spiritually. The Baal Shem Tov says that this is why they are called hakafos. Hakafos is like when a person goes into a store and buys on credit: they buy now and pay later. Hakafos means that Hakadosh Boruch Hu says to a Jew, “Listen, I’m giving you everything.” Simchas Torah breaks through every limit; joy breaks through barriers. On this day, Hakadosh Boruch Hu says to a Jew, “I’m giving you an abundance of blessing, success—everything.” On Simchas Torah, says the Frierdiker Rebbe, the gates of light, the gates of blessing, and the gates of success are opened. And so Hashem says, “I’m giving you everything on credit. Over the course of the year, pay Me according to your ability.” We need to know how to seize and make the most of this great day of Simchas Torah: to unite with Hakadosh Boruch Hu through the boundless joy of Simchas Torah, and to carry that joy through the entire year. May each and every one of us have a year of light, a year of blessing, and a year of success in all material and spiritual matters. And may we merit, as we also say in the Simchas Torah prayers, “In it, Tzemach will come with the joy of the Torah.” Tzemach refers to King

26:04 Speaker 2 Moshiach—“Tzemach is his name”—who will come and redeem us. May we merit to rejoice with the complete joy of the true and complete Geulah, and may this truly be a year of complete Geulah, speedily in our days.