Simchat Torah is Hebrew for “Rejoicing of the Torah” (Getty Images/iStockphoto) Simchat Torah, Hebrew for “Rejoicing of the Torah” is a Jewish religious holiday that commemorates the completion of the ...

JERUSALEM (RNS) — Jews around the world are attempting a difficult spiritual straddle this week: how to celebrate the joyous holiday of Simchat Torah on the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas ...

Each year, Simchat Torah is welcomed by Jews across the world as an invigorating holiday when we complete, and immediately begin again, the annual public Torah reading cycle. In 2023, the usually ...

"This Simchat Torah, we will dance again." That refrain was echoed coast-to-coast by American Jews on Monday, Oct. 13, as they prepared to celebrate one of their faith's most joyous holidays following ...

(RNS) — That must be a trick question, you say. Oct. 7 was, well, on Oct. 7. True enough. But what is the appropriate date for its commemoration? That was the question many of us were hearing, and ...

Last week, our communities gathered to mark the one-year yahrzeit observance of the tragedy of Oct. 7. While each communal event was different, there were common themes. Foremost, of course, was the ...

I have spent much of my life advocating for gender equality and women’s rights within Orthodox Judaism. So it might come as a surprise that I have come to have reservations about women’s-only Simchat ...

Consequently, Simchat Torah, the most joyful day on the Jewish calendar, is now intrinsically connected to one of the darkest days in modern Jewish history. This month marks the first Simchat Torah ...

Simchat Torah is about more than beginning to read the Torah all over again. It’s about the need to reexamine what we think we know, over and over again. The Jewish holiday known as Simchat Torah, ...

(JTA) — How are we supposed to celebrate Simchat Torah this year with a full heart? The very name of this holiday — “the joy of the Torah,” celebrating the completion of the annual Torah cycle — ...