Dear all,
Tonight at Simhat Torah, after our seven joyous circle dances with the scroll, we’ll read the very ending of the Torah immediately followed by the very beginning. This is the only time of the year when the ending is read (it’s never read as part of the weekly Shabbat Torah cycle), and it is always paired with the beginning.
The last letter of Torah’s final word is ל / lamed. The first letter of Torah’s first word is ב, bet. When we go from the ending directly to the beginning, those two letters together create a word. Our sages teach that this word is Torah’s deepest teaching, its core, the hidden meaning that animates everything.
The word is לב / lev, which means heart.
Love is the point of Torah. It’s what Torah most deeply comes to teach us, year after year. I don’t mean romance, or facile love, or love that pretends away what’s difficult. I mean the kind of real, complex, creative love that underpins all creation. I mean what’s deepest and highest in us. Love as the quality that makes us want to be our best selves. Love that manifests as justice and care for each other.
Our Torah reading on Yom Kippur afternoon also hints at this. At minhah on Yom Kippur we read the verses at Torah’s literal heart, the middle part of the middle book of the scroll. (In antiquity, many texts put their most important point right in the middle.) So what’s at Torah’s literal heart? “Love your other as yourself.” (Lev. 19:18)
Tonight we celebrate Torah, which is our inheritance as a people. It’s the most precious gift we have. It’s the root of all Jewish wisdom and practice, and the source of all the texts and traditions that follow. And when we delve into the deep meaning of Torah, as we begin this new year of learning and studying and living her lessons, we find love.
Many years ago I likened the Torah to a mobius strip, because of the practice we’ll experience tonight — going right from the ending to the start of creation’s story again. Every ending is a new beginning. Closing the door on the old year is how we open the door to the new.
May this year’s journey along that mobius strip be one of genuinely meeting each other with bravery, with hope, and with curiosity. And may 5785 be a year in which we are all sustained by Torah’s most secret heart, which is love.
Hag sameah / a joyous festival to all! Here’s to more love.
