Feature: Simchat Torah brings reading full circle

Music, reading and food brought out students and community members.

By Chris Dunn, Reporter
Oct. 17, 2006

Party fever strikes college campuses every Friday night when students come together to hail the beginning of the weekend. This past Friday, though, a different kind of party was held at Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, where members of Congregation Beth Shalom and students from all over Columbia gathered to praise the beginning of the Torah in celebration of Simchat Torah.

"It's a holiday that celebrates the receiving of the Torah by the Jewish people," said Kerry Hollander, executive director of the Hillel Foundation. "The Torah is the Tree of Life to Judaism. It provides the depth of meaning to the religion and to the peoplehood."

Traditionally, Jews read the entire Torah, which is composed of the five books of Moses, throughout the course of a year. The cycle begins and ends on Simchat Torah, during which participants read the last chapter of Deuteronomy, roll the Torah scroll back to the beginning and read the first chapter of Genesis.

"It reminds me that life is a circle," said Joel Ray, president of the board of Congregation Beth Shalom. "There's a rhyme and a reason, and it's like our holiest book, the Torah, begins and ends. We end it and begin it in the same breath."

The Simchat Torah service was held at the Hillel Foundation house after taking place in the fellowship hall of the First Christian Church for the past two years.

"The fellowship hall is just enormous," Ray said. "We'd be swallowed up by it."

He said holding the service at Hillel brings students and the congregants together.

"That's something that we always do together," Ray said. "In the great scheme of things, we're a pretty small Jewish community. It only stands to reason that we share this joyous holiday. There's no point in being separate. Putting together a festival during the High Holy Days and something as wonderful as getting to dance with the Torah on Simchat Torah are things that are meant to be shared."

The celebration began at dusk on Friday as people began to set up chairs and as klezmer band The L'chaim Players, from Overland Park, Kan., arrived as per an invitation from Hillel and Congregation Beth Shalom.

Andy Curry, who leads the band, is no stranger to Columbia or to Congregation Beth Shalom, as he has been the cantor for the synagogue's High Holy Days celebrations for the past seven years.

"It was really just a matter of their asking me if I'd do it again," Curry said. "And I said, 'Yeah, can I bring my band?'"

Ray agreed to the proposition.

"We thought they would be ideal for this holiday," Ray said. "They have a wonderful blend of klezmer as well as traditional melodies."

After opening with songs performed by The L'chaim Players and readings from the siddur — the Jewish prayer book — the service quickly progressed to song and dance, which made up the bulk of the celebration. Rabbi Yossi Feintuch removed three Torah scrolls from the ark that houses them and gave them to various attendees to carry. Old and young alike formed circles and danced to the fast-paced music provided by The L'chaim Players. Meanwhile, the scrolls were passed from person to person.

"It is a holiday with unleashed joy," Hollander said. "I remember from years of doing it in Kansas City, doing many of the things we did on Friday night — marching around the synagogue, waving flags, music, dancing and, of course, apples."

The celebration concluded with the unrolling and re-rolling of one of the Torah scrolls. As Rabbi Feintuch and Congregation Beth Shalom board member Jim Kruegger unrolled the entire scroll around the room, students and congregation members gathered to hold up the stitched-together parchment sheets.

After he and Kruegger re-wound the scroll, Feintuch led the crowd in several more blessings and prayers from the prayer book and then concluded the service. Food and fellowship made up the next and last portion of the celebration, which came to a slow but nevertheless energetic end as attendees trickled out.

Hollander, who estimated that approximately 80 people were in attendance, expressed satisfaction with the overall event.

"It was great fun to have the whole community together," she said. "I love the fact that our community is so multi-generational and that we have little ones all the way through the not-so-little. We have young and old, and that made for a great time, with great music and great celebration; the great culmination of the fall holidays. We start out very solemn, with Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. With Sukkot, we celebrate the temporary nature of life. And we culminate with this huge celebration, which offers us promise for the future."

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Feature: Simchat Torah brings reading full circle

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