Round and Round It Goes

Oct 9th 2009, 00:00

One of my greatest fantasies is that the million dollar question on “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” is this: “On what page does the Talmud start?” Naturally, the more-than-likely non-Jewish contestant would get it wrong, that is, unless he or she had a rabbi or knowledgeable Jew as their phone-a-friend. The answer, of course, is that the Talmud begins not on page one, but on page two. In fact, there is no page one; it simply does not exist. Why is there no page one? For the same reason that there is really no beginning or end to the Torah which itself does not start with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, but the second letter. Tomorrow morning at 10:00 AM we will celebrate Simchat Torah, the official end of the High Holy Day season. We began a few weeks ago with Rosh Hashanah, then Yom Kippur, and finally Simchat Torah, a festival unlike the others that is actually not mentioned in the Torah itself. Simchat Torah is a post-biblical holiday that was instituted later to mark the ending and immediate beginning of the Torah reading cycle. Several years ago, I wrote a sermon about how Jews live their lives in a circle. We dance in a circle, we eat circular foods, we celebrate life-cycle events which mark the various stages of life, and we even think in a circle. The origin of all of this is our Torah, which itself is physically and symbolically cyclical in nature. We could get rid of the Torah scroll and read it from a book or computer, but the scroll itself is very significant and a very important Jewish symbol. Simchat Torah is the ultimate expression of how we live our lives in a circle. Every year, many people remark that the Simchat Torah service is their favorite of the year. Indeed, seeing the entire Torah unrolled around the sanctuary with everyone present holding it up is an awesome and inspiring sight. The message is clear: we literally hold that history, those traditions, and those beliefs in our hands. It takes all of us together to keep the Torah aloft and keep it alive and relevant.** Everyone has a place in the circle: young and old, rich and poor, Jew and non-Jew. Just as there is no beginning or end to the Torah, neither was there really a beginning nor we pray will there ever be an end to the Jewish people. Tonight at Temple is our early Shabbat service at 6:00 PM followed by dinner (reservations required). As always, if you cannot be here in person, you can watch the service live on the Internet at www.templebethtikvah.com (click on Live Services). I cannot promise, but we will try to broadcast tomorrow’s Simchat Torah service as well. Tomorrow, religious school, Torah Study, and the Shabbat Morning service as usual including the Simchat Torah service at 10:00 AM which will also include the Yizkor / Memorial Service. A potluck dairy lunch will follow the service.