Simchat Torah

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Simchat Torah 2020 Service

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Learning to Hold Onto Joy
Jon Krakauer describes reaching the top of Mount Everest in his book, Into Thin Air: “Straddling the top of the world, one foot in China and the other in Nepal, I cleared the ice from my oxygen mask, hunched a shoulder against the wind and stared absently down at the vastness of Tibet. I understood on some dim, detached level that the sweep of earth beneath my feet was a spectacular sight. I’d been fantasizing about this moment, and the release of emotion that would accompany it, for many months. But now that I was finally here, actually standing on the summit of Mount Everest, I just couldn’t summon the energy to care.” ... READ MORE

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The Torah is God's Love Letter to Humanity
The Torah is compared to a letter from a loved one, long gone away. The letter we keep close to us at all times, ruffled edges from reading, looking at, holding and touching time after time. And as with memory, our interpretation of this letter, our projections and fantasies, romanticized memories at times, evolve and change with passing time. This is the ever-evolving Torah.

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Kevodo Maleh Olam: God resides where we let Him in 
The Torah begins with an act of lovingkindness, gemilut hasadim, clothing Adam and Eve, and ends with an act of lovingkindness, burying Moses. In both cases, we are inspired by a God who cares deeply about human beings and acts with love and kindness towards them. And we are, as told by are Sages, commanded to emulate our God of Pathos, our God who loves his children, all human beings. That our Torah is about is walking in God's ways. To live a a life of lovingkindness.