The Simchat Torah ("Rejoicing of the Law") holiday begins Friday evening, and features particularly festive prayer services including dancing, singing and rejoicing in the study of the Torah. On Saturday night, traditional Hakafot Shniyot will be held - continuing the celebration of the Torah, as if to say, "We don't want to end the spiritual highs of the holiday season just yet." Jews outside of Israel celebrate Simchat Torah as a full-fledged holiday on Saturday night and Sunday as well.
Hakafot Shniyot will be commemorated in cities and towns all over Israel. In Jerusalem, celebrants will dance with two Torah scrolls that were brought to Israel on Thursday in a daring Jewish Agency mission.
The fascinating story of the scrolls came to a head earlier this week, when the Jewish Agency received a call for help from NACOEJ, the North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry.
The Torahs had been housed in the city of Gundar, in a compound that served in the past as an Aliyah center. The center was ultimately closed, with NACOEJ prevented from accessing it, and on Tuesday night of this week it came officially under the auspices of other groups - including a 'Jews for Jesus' organization. Various legal entanglements necessitated the removal of the Torah scrolls before midnight, or else have them possibly lost forever. With the help of the police in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, the Jewish Agency managed to extricate them just four hours before the deadline.
Permanent residence for one of the Torah scrolls will be in an Ethiopian synagogue damaged by Katyusha missiles during the summer war, in a Jewish Agency absorption center in Kiryat Yam. The Torah was originally donated by an American philanthropist.
The other Torah scroll will actually be returned to Addis Ababa after the holiday, to the tiny Yemenite Jewish Community there that originally loaned it to the Addis Ababa compound synagogue 100 years ago.
The Yemenite Jews in Ethiopia hailed from Aden, and were a community of merchants that traveled with their Torah scroll from place to place, finally ending up in Addis Ababa early in the 20th century. The community currently numbers only five families, and when Taleb Kanzan, its head, heard with great emotion that the scroll was in Israel, he asked that it be returned only after the Simchat Torah holiday.
"We have other Torah scrolls," he said, "and it will be a great privilege for us to use a Torah that was used for Hakafot in Jerusalem."
Jewish Agency Chairman Ze'ev Bielski noted that the rescue of two Torah scrolls on the eve of Simchat Torah symbolizes the Biblical verse, “The Torah will come forth from Zion," which is widely recited and sung on this holiday.
In other holiday news, hundreds of Chabad-Lubavitch families will be guests in Hevron, the City of the Patriarchs, this holiday weekend.
Lubavitch families from all over Israel will spend the Simchat Torah, beginning Friday evening, in Hevron. They will lodge in the Jewish Community's guest house, and will commemorate the traditional Hakafot (dancing around, and with, the Torah scrolls) in the Machpelah Cave. Their presence will give strength to the beleaguered but strong community, residents say.
Thousands more people will arrive in Hevron on Saturday night for the Hakafot Shniyot.
Photo Credit: Yael Tzur / Israel Sun and Jewish Agency
Hakafot Shniyot will be commemorated in cities and towns all over Israel. In Jerusalem, celebrants will dance with two Torah scrolls that were brought to Israel on Thursday in a daring Jewish Agency mission.
The fascinating story of the scrolls came to a head earlier this week, when the Jewish Agency received a call for help from NACOEJ, the North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry.
The Torahs had been housed in the city of Gundar, in a compound that served in the past as an Aliyah center. The center was ultimately closed, with NACOEJ prevented from accessing it, and on Tuesday night of this week it came officially under the auspices of other groups - including a 'Jews for Jesus' organization. Various legal entanglements necessitated the removal of the Torah scrolls before midnight, or else have them possibly lost forever. With the help of the police in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, the Jewish Agency managed to extricate them just four hours before the deadline.
Permanent residence for one of the Torah scrolls will be in an Ethiopian synagogue damaged by Katyusha missiles during the summer war, in a Jewish Agency absorption center in Kiryat Yam. The Torah was originally donated by an American philanthropist.
The other Torah scroll will actually be returned to Addis Ababa after the holiday, to the tiny Yemenite Jewish Community there that originally loaned it to the Addis Ababa compound synagogue 100 years ago.
The Yemenite Jews in Ethiopia hailed from Aden, and were a community of merchants that traveled with their Torah scroll from place to place, finally ending up in Addis Ababa early in the 20th century. The community currently numbers only five families, and when Taleb Kanzan, its head, heard with great emotion that the scroll was in Israel, he asked that it be returned only after the Simchat Torah holiday.
"We have other Torah scrolls," he said, "and it will be a great privilege for us to use a Torah that was used for Hakafot in Jerusalem."
Jewish Agency Chairman Ze'ev Bielski noted that the rescue of two Torah scrolls on the eve of Simchat Torah symbolizes the Biblical verse, “The Torah will come forth from Zion," which is widely recited and sung on this holiday.
In other holiday news, hundreds of Chabad-Lubavitch families will be guests in Hevron, the City of the Patriarchs, this holiday weekend.
Lubavitch families from all over Israel will spend the Simchat Torah, beginning Friday evening, in Hevron. They will lodge in the Jewish Community's guest house, and will commemorate the traditional Hakafot (dancing around, and with, the Torah scrolls) in the Machpelah Cave. Their presence will give strength to the beleaguered but strong community, residents say.
Thousands more people will arrive in Hevron on Saturday night for the Hakafot Shniyot.
Photo Credit: Yael Tzur / Israel Sun and Jewish Agency