Simchat Torah

[cellio]

Simchat Torah went well for me this year. I felt more included than in past years; our rabbis are doing a better job of making it not just about kids. There was still a lot of kid stuff, but this non-parent adult did not feel as alienated as at some times in the past.

Friday night (we follow the Israeli calendar, so Friday rather than Saturday) was pretty packed, and also pretty rowdy because of a large number of kids. There wasn't a lot of actual dancing with the torah, but that's normal for my congregation and people had a good time regardless. Everyone who wanted got multiple chances at carrying either a torah scroll (adults who felt up to it), a scroll of the prophets (adults who wanted something lighter), or one of the small stuffed torah toys (kids). There was a lot of singing.

On Simchat Torah everyone who wants one gets an aliya. We do four, two at the end of D'varim and two at the beginning of B'reishit. (I don't know if that's the usual number, though those are the usual readings -- finishing and starting again being the whole point.) The way my rabbi makes sure everyone gets an aliya is to divide it up by birthdays in batches of three months. That works.

We had previously agreed that I would read (well, chant) the beginning of B'reishit. I had wondered how this would work -- if my rabbi did D'varim and then I did one aliya in B'reishit and then my rabbi did the last one, wouldn't that look a little funny? (I had offered to do as much of B'reishit as he wanted; I'm doing the whole thing next week for Shabbat.) Not to worry, though -- it turned out we had all three rabbis there, so each rabbi and I took one aliya. I really liked hearing from all three of them; one of them is very rarely on the pulpit. (His focus is education.)

My birthday was in the last batch, so after I finished reading I stayed up there for an aliya. So my rabbi handed me the other sefer torah to hold. (I don't know who was holding it before -- possibly the rabbi who was about to read.) None of the rabbis seemed interested in taking it back afterwards, so instead of going back to the congregation I (at the urging of the third rabbi) stayed up there for the conclusion of the torah service. Standing in front of the ark with all three of our rabbis felt indescribably special.

Saturday morning the crowd was smaller and mostly adults. It was also fun, with lower decibel levels. :-) I read again -- possibly a little better, as the previous night I had learned that with that scroll and that desk and a portion that (of course) starts at the top of a column, I couldn't get close enough to see well for the first several lines. (I pulled more of that torah reading out of my head than is, strictly speaking, proper.) After the service Friday night I found out where they keep a small stepstool -- ah, much better!

We have a beit midrash after services on the second Saturday of each month, and the rabbi in charge saw no reason to change that just because it's Simchat Torah. So we had a nice little study session around some midrash about the death of Moshe and his numerous appeals to God (and the angels, and the sun and the moon, and...) to get to go into the land. I'd heard some of this before but not all of it. Interesting stuff.

And thus ends the marathon of fall holidays.

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FWIW, the usual aliyah practice in my experience is:

At night, three individual aliyot from the beginning of vzot habracha, as it would be on a Monday or Thursday morning. Done.

In the morning, five aliyot from the beginning of vzot habracha. Repeat as needed, at several tables all over the shul, until everyone has had an aliyah except for the four people being held "in reserve".

(At our shul, we also have separate tables with women leyning for the women to get aliyot. And there's a special aliyah for the shul "candy lady" and all the girls.)

Then everyone comes back together for kol hanearim (the shul "candy man" has the formal aliyah, and all the kids go up with him and those who know the berachot sing along.) This goes to the end of the cycle of five.

Then there's a long summons for the "chatan torah", who is usually our rabbi, and he gets the final aliyah in devarim.

Hagbah, glilah.

Then another long summons for the "chatan bereshit", which varies from year to year and is a big honor. That aliyah covers the seven days of creation, with singing between each day.

Hagbah, glilah.

Maftir from Pinchas, 'cuz it's yom tov. Hagbah, glilah. Haftarah from Joshua 1:1.