I think of the story (and now song) of how Holocaust survivors danced with the lone child they found who had survived the Shoah in lieu of a Torah scroll, eager to continue on Simchat Torah ...

People dance with the Torah scrolls; there is sometimes alcohol consumption; and there is the decades-old memory that the only day upon which Jews in the former Soviet Union would celebrate ...

One 14th-century Provence authority describes how following the Haftarah, the elders of the synagogue would remove all the Torah scrolls from the ark, stand on a platform and “mourn the death of ...

9 answer 9) one question that was sent to him regarding the burial of Torah scrolls. The questioner is Rabbi Baruch Lasary, zt'l, who asked about the custom in some cities in Morocco during the ...

It is traditionally marked with vibrant song and exuberant dance, as Jews of all ages exult in our heritage, raising aloft Torah scrolls as they encircle the synagogue platform. But last year ...

Walk me like a palindrome forward to our common home, looking backwards at the past, thinking our love couldn’t last, though it’s lasted long enough for ...

During the seven hakafot, or rounds of celebration, select congregants carry the Torah scrolls and lead all the other members in spirited singing and dancing to celebrate the end and start of the ...

the day when Jews are supposed to sing and dance with Torah scrolls in a state of total exuberance. But the disconnect between that spirit of joy and the massacre is so great that to commemorate ...

The highlight is the hakafot, during which participants march and dance around a Torah scroll. “This holiday is characterized by utterly unbridled joy,” says the Hasidic organization Chabad ...

For centuries and generations, we have carried the Torah scrolls metaphorically and physically with honor, respect and reverence. Yet we still feel a sense of uncertainty and insecurity regarding ...

One 14th-century Provence authority describes how following the Haftarah, the elders of the synagogue would remove all the Torah scrolls from the ark, stand on a platform and “mourn the death of ...