On October 14, 1663, Samuel Pepys visited the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in London. This was only seven years since Jews had been allowed back to England after being expelled in 1290. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks quotes from his diary describing the visit:
“… after dinner my wife and I, by Mr. Rawlinson’s conduct, to the Jewish Synagogue: where the men and boys in their vayles (i.e. tallitot), and the women behind a lattice out of sight; and some things stand up, which I believe is their Law, in a press (i.e. the Torah in the Aron) to which all coming in do bow; and at the putting on their vayles do say something, to which others that hear him do cry Amen, and the party do kiss his vayle. Their service all in a singing way, and in Hebrew. And anon their Laws that they take out of the press are carried by several men, four or five several burthens in all, and they do relieve one another; and whether it is that everyone desires to have the carrying of it, I cannot tell, thus they carried it round about the room while such a service is singing … But, Lord! to see the disorder, laughing, sporting, and no attention, but confusion in all their service, more like brutes than people knowing the true God, would make a man forswear ever seeing them more and indeed I never did see so much, or could have imagined there had been any religion in the whole world so absurdly performed as this.”
It was Simchat Torah.
Simchat Torah is a time to rejoice, to celebrate, and to be happy being Jewish.
Not everyone enjoys the singing, the dancing, and the merriment the same way. That’s OK. We try different approaches and, sometimes, incentives to get people involved. We might pull people into the circle or offer the children candy and flags or have a “first Kiddush” in addition to the later one. Simchat Torah is a ritual release valve to elicit ebullient enthusiasm and excitement.
The Torah has a recipe for Jewish joy.
וְשָׂמַחְתָּ
בְּחַגֶּךָ... וְהָיִיתָ אַךְ שָׂמֵחַ
You shall rejoice on your festival…and you shall have nothing but joy. (Devarim 16: 14, 15)
We all know the song. (Now, you’re singing it in your head…) The lyrics combine the beginning of one verse and the end of another. While they seem to describe the same thing: being happy on the holiday, the expressions describe two aspects of Jewish joy. Why?
V'samachata b’chagecha is a command to rejoice on the holiday. How can the Torah command an emotion? The Torah is commanding us to take actions that make us feel happy – eat, drink, sing, dance, study, pray, wear new clothes. As the Talmud says in Pesachim (109), celebrating a holiday is different for different people.
But there’s more to Jewish joy than the actions or even the feelings of happiness we feel.
V’hayita ach sameach – You shall have nothing but joy.
How is it possible to have only joy? What is the difference between “you shall be happy” and “you shall have only joy?”
Actions, rituals, and details are our pathways to feeling Jewish joy as a mindset.
Rabbi Doron Perez, the head of World Mizrachi, notes the irony in the that “the generation that relentlessly pursues happiness seems to be the most distant from it.” He notes this is the central theme in cultural critic Ruth Whippman’s book, America the Anxious – How Our Pursuit of Happiness is Creating a Nation of Nervous Wrecks. She quotes a study of psychologists from the University of California, Berkeley who show that “paradoxically, the more people valued and were encouraged to value happiness as a separate life goal, the less happy they were.”
We might think that happiness is the feeling that comes from certain actions or accomplishing a specific task or goal. True happiness is a state of being. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch explicitly explains “ach sameach” as a state of being. We hope that our celebrating ritually – v’samachta b’chagecha - will lead to a joyous state of mind, heart, and soul – ach sameach.
We act joyously in the hopes of acquiring a joyful mindset.
It’s not easy or automatic. Sometimes, the feelings don’t last. Sukkot followed by Simchat Torah reminds us that as we strive to be joyful, it may take a lot of celebrating joyously to get us there. That’s fine. Just keep finding – or inventing – reasons to feel joy.
The head of a school in London came to Rabbi Sacks, of blessed memory, for advice. The school was floundering, morale was low, enrollment was falling, and test scores were dreadful. Rabbi Sacks suggested that the school needed to undergo a culture shift. “You need to celebrate,” he said. She turned to him with a sigh. “You don’t understand,” she said. “We have nothing to celebrate. Everything in the school is going wrong.” “In that case,” Rabbi Sacks said, “Find something to celebrate. If a single student has done better, celebrate. If someone has a birthday, celebrate. If it’s Tuesday, celebrate.” In time, the school turned around – in large measure thanks to Rabbi Sacks’ advice.
Simchat Torah may be on a Sunday, but the message is clear. We need to rejoice in our Judaism. Not just once a year, but as often as we can. Once the holidays conclude, the joy of “ach sameach” should reverberate in our ears and remind us: Be happy being Jewish. If it’s Tuesday, celebrate!
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