Simchat Torah shared with Beth Hillel

We started slowly. Of the sixty seats we had put out, about twenty were occupied, and for a while it looked as though everyone would have the luxury of a little extra space. Then people kept arriving. We added a row of chairs, then another, and eventually ran out of siddurim. It was a wonderful way to bring our High Holy Day season to a close, celebrating Simchat Torah with our sister community, Beth Hillel.

Torah scrolls from both communities were carried around the room as we sang and danced to traditional songs, with Laura S at the piano and Golan adding techno beats from his laptop. There was something very moving about seeing so many people joining the hakafot, making room for one another and sharing the pleasure of carrying our Torahs together.

We were delighted to have Pastor Katja and her daughter with us. Each year, she welcomes us into her church and allows us to transform it into our synagogue for the High Holy Days. Over these four years, that generous hospitality has helped us create a place filled with familiar prayers, shared memories and a real sense of belonging. It was lovely to include her in the celebration so she could experience something of the community she helps bring together.

Our Chatan Torah, Pierre T, and our Kallah Bereshit, Sarah W, received special aliyot in recognition of their exceptional contribution to IJC during the past year and in previous years. Communities depend upon people who keep showing up, taking responsibility and attending to the things that need doing. Much of that happens quietly, while the rest of us enjoy the results. Simchat Torah gave us a particularly fitting occasion to thank Pierre and Sarah, as one brought our reading to its conclusion and the other helped us begin again.

A joyous celebration

We also had the great pleasure of welcoming Gordon Swartz from the United States. Gordon was a longstanding IJC member before returning to the US ten years ago, and he continues to support us through the American Friends of IJC. After his major heart surgery, it was a delight to see him looking so well. He joined the service and the dancing as though he had never been away. Ten years is quite a while, although apparently it takes considerably longer to forget how to join an IJC celebration.

There is always something moving about reaching the final words of Deuteronomy. We have spent another year travelling through the Torah, bringing our changing lives to its familiar stories. Moses dies, the reading ends, and almost immediately we are back at the beginning, with the creation of the world. Jewish tradition gives us very little time to congratulate ourselves on having finished. There is another beginning waiting, and quite a lot still to learn.

On Saturday this was made even more special by the Torah leyning provided by Anneke Silverstein and her students, Vincent of Beth Hillel and Eli, David and Peter from IJC. A great example of making Torah more accessible to our community.

My drasha reflected on Torah and the world around us. We live with so many assumptions about how things work that we can easily stop questioning them. Torah keeps asking us to look again: at the way we treat people, at whose suffering we notice, at the responsibilities we accept and those we would rather leave to someone else. Each return to the text offers the possibility that we might hear something differently, or finally take seriously something we have been reading for years.

That seemed an appropriate thought with which to conclude this season. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur had asked us to examine our lives, acknowledge what needs repair and consider what another year might make of us. Sukkot reminded us how fragile our arrangements can be. On Simchat Torah, we gathered up those reflections and carried them into the new beginning with music, laughter and a room rather fuller than expected.

There are times when life feels dark, and we spoke during these High Holy Days about finding enough light for the next step. Sometimes that light comes through a conversation, a kindness or a prayer we have known for years. Sometimes it comes through an old friend returning, a neighbour’s hospitality, or the sight of two communities dancing together with their Torah scrolls.

We begin another year of reading with much still to understand and plenty to concern us. The joy of this shared celebration will stay with us, reminding us that we have people beside us, a Torah to return to, and enough light to take the next step together.

Rabbi Brian