OKAY, I can't just let "my favorite holiday" go by without talking about it! Simchat Torah was celebrated tonight and it was so much fun! It doesn't pack 'em like Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur, but there was a larger than average crowd, including a lot of kids, so it was quite pandemonius (I know it's not a word, but it functions as one!). Most fantastic about the service is having an entire Torah scroll unrolled in front of the congregation, then recent bar and bat mitzvah kids read verses from each book. What's amazing about that was how well it rolled along. The kids had done their studying and it went really smoothly.
But, of course, the best part is the party after services! There was dancing and dancing and more dancing. I had a great time. My pal Frieda was there and she took a picture of me with a Torah scroll. She said she's going to send it to me so I'll post it here. It's so funny to watch the adults who WANT to dive in but seem to be held in place by their sense of...uh, propriety? Dignity? Fear of looking foolish?? I dunno. I just wish I could push a button so they would just grab a scroll and trip the light Torah-fantastic. There was a live klezmer band pumping out the yiddishe jams and I was wearing my big green Doc Martens making mad merriment all over the place. I tried to wear my green kippah but it wouldn't stay on and I don't have any clips, so I was wearing my oldest and still favorite hand-crochetted black kippah that has a rainbow around the edge. As I danced past Rabbi Debra Robbins I pointed out to her that it was a year ago tonight that we met for the first time. Man, going there was the best decision I made for myself since the first time I cut my hair short. I've never gone back to having hair down to my shoulders; may I never stop going to temple wherever I'm living.
I danced for a very long time because there seemed to be a shortage of any other adults willing to take the scroll from me; but that's alright. If I get to dance with a Torah scroll only once a year, I'm doing it for as long as I can. As I danced around, I couldn't stop myself looking gratefully at each of the rabbis. Really. Yes it's hokey and fer godsake I'm in my mid-40's, but it's true! I feel really, really lucky and, dare I say, blessed to have this clergy team! They're sincere, intelligent, and not the least bit stuffy and unapproachable. I can be goofy with them, but also believe absolutely that they would help me without hesitation in time of need.
Jewish life is full of cycles. Where Simchat Torah (my favorite holiday) is the final part of the High Holy Days cycle, it is also the beginning of the reading cycle that fills our lives every year. I've got a first draft of my B'reishit essay written and it is not even close to what I was expecting or intending. It's much more personal than I ever meant to be. I will probably do a couple more edits before I post it, but I think it will stay personal. That's what Torah is. It's about all of us, but it's also about EACH of us. Tonight, I danced with all of us at once. It was happy and joyous and wonderful and chaotic. It represents the absolute joy of studying something that means so much to so many people all around the world. The Torah scrolls are back in their arks, rolled back to the beginning; my book markers are at the front of my chumashim, and it's like we get to watch a tree grow from a seed all over again. Every year we watch a new tree grow, and the limbs are always different, the leaves are different shapes; the smell is different; the bark is different. But it's the same tree. I'm the same me, but I'm not the person I was last year at this time. And every year, we get to see Torah new again because of that. Man, what's not to look forward to??
Chazak! Chazak! Venischazeik! ("Be strong! Be Strong! And may we be strengthened!" --- traditionally said when we finish reading a book of Torah)
Lev
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