Simchat Torah

Circles. It's all about circles.

Tonight, Simchat Torah, we do something wild for a room full of grownups... we grab the sifrei Torah and dance our hearts out!

But we don't dance in whatever formation we like... we dance in CIRCLES.

Around and around the bima, sweating, singing, kids up on shoulders, men on one side of the mechitza and women on the other.

No line dancing up in here.

But why a CIRCLE???

Open your hearts, phriends...

The parsha opens with Moshe's last words: "וְזֹ֣את הַבְּרָכָ֗ה אֲשֶׁ֨ר בֵּרַ֥ךְ מֹשֶׁ֛ה אִ֥ישׁ הָאֱלֹקִ֖ים" - "this is the blessing that Moshe, the man of G-d, blessed."

The Mei HaShiloach, the holy Izhbitzer, hears that and brings the Gemara at the very end of Masechet Taanit: "עָתִיד הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא לַעֲשׂוֹת מָחוֹל לַצַּדִּיקִים וְהוּא יוֹשֵׁב בֵּינֵיהֶם" - "in the future, Hashem will make a machol, a circle dance, for the tzaddikim, and He sits in the middle."

Everybody in a ring. Hashem in the center. "וְכוּלָּם יוֹנְקִים בְּשָׁוֶה" - and ALL of them draw from Him equally.

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Think about that shape for a second. In a circle, every single person is exactly the same distance from the middle.

There's no front row and no back row.

And then comes the twist. In this circle with no ranks, Moshe Rabbeinu davens for one thing... that everyone should still see "שֶׁהַדִּבְרֵי תּוֹרָה הָלְכוּ עַל יָדוֹ" - that the Torah came down through HIM.

And Hashem promises him! Why? "כֵּיוָן שֶׁהוּא הָיָה הֶעָנָיו מִכָּל אָדָם" - because he was the humblest man who ever lived.

So which is it? Is everybody equal, or does Moshe shine?

Look at the reason Hashem gives. Moshe gets to stand out BECAUSE he was the humblest man alive... he never needed anyone else to be smaller.

The only kind of greatness that fits in the circle is the kind that doesn't push anybody back a row.

That's the dance tonight. You're in the circle because you're a Jew. Period. Nobody's spot is up for grabs... and your place is no one's to take either.

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Now picture how a show is laid out.

It's a LINE. Stage up front, then the pit, the floor, the lower bowl, the 300s, and way up top, the kid who grabbed the last ticket at 2am. All night long, everybody's measuring how close they got.

And then the whole room hits the same chorus at the same second... and the pit and the nosebleeds are one voice.

Pit, floor, the 300s, the lawn...

🎶 'But they're all, bold as love'.

Simchat Torah is that, with the Torah in our arms.

Tonight the rav and the guy who comes twice a year dance the exact same steps. The gabbai's yelling "Who hasn't had one yet??" and suddenly there's a sefer Torah in your arms, heavier than you expected, and you're already moving before you've figured out where your hands go.

David HaMelech danced before the aron with everything he had, and Michal watched from the window and was embarrassed for him. He didn't care... and tonight we all get to dance like him.

🎶 'Sanity never came my way' 🎶 'I forgot the rules, I forgot my pride'

So this week:

→ The guy standing by the door with his arms crossed during hakafot, pretty sure he's not "that kind of Jew." He's the same distance from the middle as the rav. Go hand him the Torah.

→ The friend who had the kind of year where she's not sure she even belongs in the room. On "Torah tziva lanu Moshe, morasha," one pasuk earlier, the Izhbitzer says what we inherited from the Avot is so deep that "וְאֵין שׁוּם חֵטְא יָכוֹל לִפְגֹּם זֹאת הַקְּדֻשָּׁה" - no sin in the world can damage it. Save her a spot.

Remember what's in the middle of that circle. Hashem, pouring out to every one of us the same. Light hitting every face around the bima at the exact same moment...

🎶 'I'm vibrating with love and light'.

And then we finish "לְעֵינֵ֖י כׇּל־יִשְׂרָאֵֽל" - "before the eyes of all Israel" - and before the scroll is even rolled up, we start again: "בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹקִ֑ים."

The Torah itself is a circle.

🎶 'You always end up where you start'... and every time around, we get a little closer... to being UNIFIED in our equidistance to Hashem!

May Hashem, sitting right in the middle of every circle tonight, pour His light out to all of us EQUALLY and B'shefa rabbah... and may each of us shine from our own spot with everything we built this year and everything we wish for the year to come, until He makes the real machol and every one of us can point and say: this is our G-d. Chag sameach!

Good Shabbos, phriends.