October 21st, 2019 — Shmini Atzeret
It is traditional to honor a Torah scroll by standing before it, kissing it, never turning your back on it. On Simhat Torah, the culminating celebration of the High Holy Days, we go so far as to dance with sifrei Torah. Why do we do this? Especially considering how problematic so many of the narratives and principles contained in our primary ancient text, is this the book we should dance with? This drasha explores a few possible reasons why dancing with a sefer Torah actually celebrates and affirms our responsibility to wrest wisdom from Torah with a capital T’.