Shemini Atzeret / Simchat Torah
שמחת תורה / שמיני עצר
22nd of Tishrei in the Hebrew calendar and late September and October in the Gregorian calendar.
Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah are celebrated consecutively on the day following Sukkot.
Shemini Atzeret marks the start of the rainy season in Israel. On Shemini Atzeret Israelis pray for winter rains to begin.
On Simchat Torah the final chapter of Deuteronomy is read in Synagogue. It is followed immediately by the first chapter of Genesis, demonstrating that Torah study is an unending cycle. It is a day of immense joy in the synagogue. Traditionally the Jewish people dance and sing in the synagogue and in the streets.
Torah scrolls are carried seven times around the synagogue. The seven circuits symbolise that the entire world was created in seven stages and is sustained by the Torah.
In the Kabbalistic tradition, the seven circles represent the seven lower Sephirot in the Tree of Life.
Chesed, Gevurah, Tiferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod and Malkut.
The circuits symbolize that the entire world, created in seven stages, is sustained by the Torah.
In the Kabbalistic tradition, the Zohar teaches us that Simchat Torah is a celebration of the Tree of Life.
Simchat Torah represents that we rise beyond the “Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil” into a higher state of divine truth.