This week ends our High Holyday season. The last celebration is Simchat Torah which will be held at the Swain School on Sunday at 7:00 pm. Simchat Torah is the holiday of the reading of the Torah and the holiday in which we point out the integral position the Torah holds in the life of every Jew. At Simchat Torah services we finish reading the Torah and then immediately begin to read it again. The last parsha of the Torah is V’zot Hab’racha, this is the blessing. In it Moses blesses the Israelites using a beautiful poem to move and inspire them. The parsha then continues with the death of Moses and a retelling of his remarkable story. The text reflects the epic story of Israel’s unrivaled leader. After we chant the last verses of V’zot Hab’racha we immediately go to the beginning of the Torah and chant the first few verses of B’reishit, in the beginning. The Torah begins with the telling of the story of creation. We end the Torah with the story of the beginning of the Jewish people in the land that God had promised them and begin the Torah with the beginning of the world. I find that to be an amazing literary device.
We are now beginning the cycle of the reading of the Torah and we need sermonizers. These next few weeks are the most familiar of all the stories of the Torah and are quite fertile in terms of subjects to preach about.
Oct 13 B’reishit , Creation
Oct 20 Noah
Oct 28 Lech L’cha beginning of the story of Abraham
Please let me know if you would like to preach any of these weeks.
Chag Sameach
Happy Holiday
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