From Shelter to Celebration of Renewal

We go straight from the Sukkah at this time of year to the celebration of the cycle of our reading of the Torah. This Shabbat we will read again from Genesis (Bereisheet in Hebrew), completing our cycle of the year, and starting anew.

There are plenty of cycles that begin again at this time of year, not the least of which is the election cycle. I won't comment on that here - my sense is that as you get to know me my values will become clear, and if you like them you may use them to make your own decisions. I shouldn't be telling anyone how to vote, and that act in itself is my commentary on our colleagues in other religious institutions that have decided to campaign for one candidate or another.

Back to Simchat Torah, and the celebration of this turning of the cycle of our Torah readings. What wisdom might we take from this for our lives, aside from joining a big party at a synagogue somewhere?

A story that is told over and over can be really powerful. On Rosh Hashanah every year we read about the binding of Isaac, and it doesn't lose its power in the retelling, because we refresh our own approach to it every year. Our own lives go through cycles of telling as well - after all, many of our roles in life are often about doing the same thing over and over again. When we celebrate the return to the beginning of a cycle, we remind ourselves that it is an opportunity to find a new approach to the cycle of the year. A retelling isn't superfluous if it is told with new wisdom, with an acknowledgement that we have learned something since the last telling.

No matter what we do in the coming week, may we make sure that we put our full selves into it, be present in the action, even in a regular thing, and it will be renewed, and perhaps we and those around us may be as well. That's a new-old way to celebrate Simchat Torah, the re-cycling of our story for a new year.