Shavua Tov

Rabbi Lewis explains how important it is to celebrate Simchat Torah

October 23, 2024

Is it appropriate to celebrate Simchat Torah 2024?

This Wednesday night and Thursday, we must celebrate Simchat Torah. Perhaps more than ever before!

Warnings:

  1. This is a 3-5 minute read. Much more than I anticipated when I began to write.
  2. I’ve decided to push some themes that many of you might not be familiar with. It is my hope that you manage to stick it out to the end, and that you’ll find it relatable, meaningful and uplifting.

On the one hand, the joyous day of Simchat Torah has cruelly “earned” another label; one of intense collective grief and tragedy. The pain and sorrow is so real, for myself and for my own family, no less than for all those who mourn for the death and destruction inflicted by Hamas and their evil, hate filled barbaric co-conspirators, on that fateful day and subsequently throughout the past year.

I am acutely aware that what I’m about to write will likely be mistakenly construed as dismissive and insensitive. For the better part of the past year, I have grappled with this immensely difficult paradox.

It is our sacred responsibility and obligation to do as Jews have done for three millennia; to dance and celebrate Simchat Torah with the deepest joy that we can muster. No antisemite can or should ever be offered the satisfaction of thinking that they could turn our Simchat Torah into a day of sadness, pain and grief.

We have no choice. We must dig to the deepest recesses of the Jewish spirit and harness the true joy that transcends, as well as outlives, our enemies and all of their evil doings. Both our physical enemies, as well as our spiritual ones too.

In Chassidic parlance, ‘Avodah’ (labour) is the effort that we are charged to apply ourselves to, as we strive to fulfil our Divine purpose, for which we have been put here as mortal beings. The paradoxical experience of soul and body, as we grapple with life’s mission, is an intensely laborious process, fraught with challenge and even failure.

For a machine to achieve optimal productivity, it can’t be sluggish. It must maintain constant energetic efficiency. Melancholy sadness doesn’t generate positive energy; and it certainly can’t achieve optimal productivity in ‘Avodah’. In fact, Chabad Chassidic teachings yield thousands of pages on the theme and value of ‘Avodah’ through Simcha - joy, as it seeks to put the diligent student in a healthy frame of mind, driven with the optimistic, joyful vitality that is so essential to achieving success in life’s mission.

True Simcha – joy – is in fact a key factor in our Service of Hashem – ‘Avodah’.

In the world of Chabad, Simchat Torah never really was about a surface, superficial joy, that might be easily accessed through a carefree joviality that life is good. It represents the deepest levels of the soul’s post-Yom Kippur connection to its Divine, G-dly source. A joy so complete and perfect that it successfully permeates every fibre of our physical being, right down to our dancing feet!

This Simchat Torah, we must invest all of our energies in boosting our pride, our determination, our courage and our confidence as living Jews. Hopeful, energised and optimistic as we head from this seasonal month of festivity and Jewish meaningful engagement into the year ahead.

Of all the stories of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, a favourite of mine is the one of Rabbi Yosef Wineberg, who was mortified that he had caused the Rebbe to bend down and retrieve a note that he had submitted and that had fallen to the floor in the Rebbe’s doorway. In response to Rabbi Wineberg’s subsequent apologetic note, the Rebbe replied, “This is my whole purpose – to uplift; and particularly that which others overlook”.

In the ‘court’ of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Simchat Torah was a magical day. If the Rebbe dedicated his life each and every day to uplifting world Jewry and the post-Holocaust generation, Simchat Torah was Uplift 2.0!

Personally, the first time I merited to spend Simchat Torah at Chabad HQ ‘770’ was in 1992, after the Rebbe had suffered a debilitating stroke, so I never witnessed the magic with my own eyes. But having been raised by parents and teachers whose lives were transformed by that magical atmosphere, I am enormously grateful and blessed to have had that intense vibrancy communicated and taught to me in a truly enriching and impactful way.

True Simcha – as voices join in harmonious, lively song, hands clapping and feet dancing with boundless holy infusion. Around, and around and around. Souls filled with an energetic force that uplifts community, and in turn all of Am Yisrael.

May our joyous spirit this week burst through all obstacles, like a torrent of the most intense gushing waterfall, breaking down all the walls of darkness, of evil, and of this bitter exile, finally heralding the ultimate joy of all, with the coming of Moshiach, now!

L’chaim!

I share with you a deeply moving description of the depth of true Simchat Torah spirit, with my heartfelt blessings and wishes that every Jew on earth can experience this level of unbridled joy this Simchat Torah.

https://www.meaningfullife.com/simchat-torah-through-water-and-fire

If you’ve made it this far, allow me to entice you to join us at Chabad for Simchat Torah! Contact Rabbi Efune for info on events for community at 15 The Upper Drive.
Details for our student events at www.ChabadSussex.org/SimchatTorah2024

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