The second night of celebrations with the Torah after the end of the Simchat Torah holiday, called Hakafot Sh’niyot, is accompanied in most cities by live music and is attended by local and national political and rabbinical leaders. The local synagogues traditionally bring their Torah scrolls to the designated public areas and join together in a joint outdoor celebration of dancing and singing in honor of the Torah.
In Jerusalem, the Hakafot Sh’niyot took place at the Western Wall plaza and in the capital’s Liberty Bell Park (which is named for its replica of the American Liberty Bell). Two Torah scrolls rescued from Ethiopia last week, including one brought to Addis Ababa over a century ago from Yemen, were featured in the celebrations.
In Tel Aviv, celebrants gathered in Rabin Square for music and dancing.
Despite numerous Kassam rocket attacks into Sderot on Friday and Saturday, 1,000 residents took part in post-holiday events in the southern city. Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal had earlier written to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz asking how his city was meant to hold such a large public gathering while still under attack from the Palestinian Authority in Gaza. “I am not prepared to endanger the residents of my city, even for such a celebration,” Moyal wrote.
On Friday, just before the start of the Sabbath, two such PA rockets struck the city, injuring two and sending several into shock.
Olmert handed responsibility for securing the post-Simchat Torah celebrations to the Ministry of Public Security and to the Defense Ministry. The latter provided a form of air cover for the event, which Moyal finally agreed to hold. Local residential leader Alon Davidi addressed the crowd and said, with a measure of sarcasm, "We are grateful to the security arms for providing us a two-hour window in which to hold these celebrations. We ask that this window be extended indefinitely so that Sderot residents can be protected from rockets hitting their homes."
Outside Israel, the Shemini Atzeret-Simchat Torah holiday is two days long, such that the Hakafot Sh’niyot serve to symbolically link Israeli Jews with their brethren in the Diaspora. According to tradition, the second night of celebrations in Israel began among the Kabbalists of 16th century Tzfat (Safed), who would take all the Torah scrolls out of the synagogue ark at the end of the Simchat Torah holiday and repeat the seven-cycle procession around the reading platform, as was done on the holiday itself.
The holiday of Shemini Atzeret-Simchat Torah marks the end of one cycle of reading the Torah and the start of a new one, at the start of the Jewish year, which began three weeks ago. The highly ceremonial conclusion of the reading of Deuteronomy and the start of the reading of Genesis on the holiday is accompanied by singing and dancing in the synagogue, often spilling onto public streets.
In Jerusalem, the Hakafot Sh’niyot took place at the Western Wall plaza and in the capital’s Liberty Bell Park (which is named for its replica of the American Liberty Bell). Two Torah scrolls rescued from Ethiopia last week, including one brought to Addis Ababa over a century ago from Yemen, were featured in the celebrations.
In Tel Aviv, celebrants gathered in Rabin Square for music and dancing.
Despite numerous Kassam rocket attacks into Sderot on Friday and Saturday, 1,000 residents took part in post-holiday events in the southern city. Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal had earlier written to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz asking how his city was meant to hold such a large public gathering while still under attack from the Palestinian Authority in Gaza. “I am not prepared to endanger the residents of my city, even for such a celebration,” Moyal wrote.
On Friday, just before the start of the Sabbath, two such PA rockets struck the city, injuring two and sending several into shock.
Olmert handed responsibility for securing the post-Simchat Torah celebrations to the Ministry of Public Security and to the Defense Ministry. The latter provided a form of air cover for the event, which Moyal finally agreed to hold. Local residential leader Alon Davidi addressed the crowd and said, with a measure of sarcasm, "We are grateful to the security arms for providing us a two-hour window in which to hold these celebrations. We ask that this window be extended indefinitely so that Sderot residents can be protected from rockets hitting their homes."
Outside Israel, the Shemini Atzeret-Simchat Torah holiday is two days long, such that the Hakafot Sh’niyot serve to symbolically link Israeli Jews with their brethren in the Diaspora. According to tradition, the second night of celebrations in Israel began among the Kabbalists of 16th century Tzfat (Safed), who would take all the Torah scrolls out of the synagogue ark at the end of the Simchat Torah holiday and repeat the seven-cycle procession around the reading platform, as was done on the holiday itself.
The holiday of Shemini Atzeret-Simchat Torah marks the end of one cycle of reading the Torah and the start of a new one, at the start of the Jewish year, which began three weeks ago. The highly ceremonial conclusion of the reading of Deuteronomy and the start of the reading of Genesis on the holiday is accompanied by singing and dancing in the synagogue, often spilling onto public streets.