Simhat Torah was included as a 'new' holiday. Could we add more?

• Author: ELI KAVON
• Published date: 26 September 2021
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Which brings us to Simhat Torah, a holiday not rooted in the Bible. In our 3,500-year history, it is a latecomer. According to scholar Philip Birnbaum, the rejoicing of the Torah was not known in Talmudic times as the name of a special festival marking the annual completion of the Torah readings. In Babylonia, where the one-year cycle for the reading of the Five Books of Moses prevailed, the marking of the completion of the reading emerged in the ninth century.

"The seven processions with the Torah scrolls," writes Birnbaum, "became customary in the 16th century." Simhat Torah became one of the most popular of Jewish holidays despite its late appearance.

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In A History of Judaism, historian Martin Goodman writes: "The end of Sukkot was marked by a final eighth day (Shmini Atzeret) on which no work was to be undertaken. In the Diaspora, where two days of the festival were observed, the second day in due course took on a character of its own in celebration of the completion of the annual cycle of the reading of the Torah, and the start of the new cycle with the book of Genesis. This celebration, known as Simhat Torah, is not attested until the beginning of the second millennium CE, but it has become a major festival for Diaspora Jews, with much singing and dancing by the congregation."

In the Land of Israel, Simhat Torah was incorporated into the holiday of Shmini Atzeret, in which the two are celebrated on the same day. It is interesting that the celebration of Simhat Torah had...