Readings for Thursday, October 17 - Sunday, October 25, 2024
Sukkoth through Simchat Torah
Starting with the first day of Sukkoth and ending with Simchat Torah we are confronted by a veritable riot of Torah readings with a reading for each day of the holiday. The readings are all off-cycle. In other words, they are not part of the regular weekly order. This is one of those cases of the more you study, the more you need to know. To understand the terminology of the Torah readings, you need to understand the structure of the holiday period (See Themes below).
Torah (Traditional) The readings are identical for the first two days of the holiday. We use two scrolls, one for each set of readings.
October 17 First Day Sukkoth
First Scroll Vayikra or
Leviticus (
The reading describes the observance of the Festival of Sukkoth.
Second Scroll Bamidbar or
Numbers (29:12-16)
The reading describes the sacrifices to be offered on Sukkoth.
Haftarah 14:1-21 Zechariah
Zechariah was
one of the last of the prophets. He was
among those who returned from the Babylonian Exile. In this portion Zechariah describes the
destruction that will be visited upon those who had attacked and destroyed
October 18 Second Day Sukkoth
First Scroll Vayikra or
Leviticus (
The reading describes the observance of the Festival of Sukkoth.
Second Scroll Bamidbar or Numbers
(29: 12-16)
The reading describes the sacrifices to be offered on Sukkoth.
Haftarah 8:2-21 First Kings
The portion
describes the dedication of the
Chol Hamoed or Intermediate Days
The readings for the days of Chol Hamoed or the Intermediate Days of Sukkoth all come from Bamidbar (Numbers). Each reading contains a description of the sacrifice that was to be brought on that day of the holiday.
October 19 Shabbat Chol Hamoed
33:12-34:26 Exodus
The reading “opens in the wake of the sin of the golden calf, as Moses
asks God to “let me know Your ways.” Moses makes a second set of tablets and
takes them up Mount Sinai, where God reveals the 13 attributes of mercy and ends
with a series of laws, including the observance of Passover, Shavuot and
Sukkot.(Sefaria
29:17-22 Bamidbar (Numbers)
The reading
describes the sacrifices to be brought on this day of Sukkoth.
Haftarah 38:18-35:39 Ezekiel
The Haftarah is a prophecy of the messianic time to come. Ezekiel
foretells that the restoration of Israel to the land of its ancestors will
include battles and invasions under the leadership of Gog, an apocalyptic
figure of unknown identity. The enemy shall suffer defeat. An old tradition to
the effect that this battle will be waged during Sukkot determined the choice
of the Haftarah for the Intermediate Sabbath. (Rabbi Helene Ainbinder)
Chol Hamoed or Intermediate Days
The readings for the 3 remaining days of Chol Hamoed or the Intermediate Days of Sukkoth all come from Bamidbar (Numbers). Each reading contains a description of the sacrifice that was to be brought on that day of the holiday
October 20 Chol Hamoed Day 2
29:20-28 Bamidbar (Numbers)
The reading describes the sacrifices to be brought on this day of Sukkoth.
October 21 Chol Hamoed Day 3
29:23-31 Bamidbar (Numbers)
The reading describes the sacrifices to be brought on this day of Sukkoth.
October 22 Chol Hamoed Day 4
29:26-34 Bamidbar (Numbers)
The reading describes the sacrifices to be brought on this day of Sukkoth.
October 23 Hoshana Rabbah or The Great Hoshana
29:26-34 Bamidbar (Numbers)
The reading describes the sacrifices to be brought on that day of the holiday.
October 24 Shemini Atzeret or Eighth Day of Assembly
First Scroll
The first reading deals with tithing.
Second Scroll 29:35-30:1
Bamidbar (Numbers)
The reading describes the sacrifices offered on that day.
Haftarah 8:54-9:1 First Kings
The
reading describes the final day of the ceremonies marking the end of the
dedication of the
October 25 Simchat Torah
First Scroll
Vezot Haberacha (And this is the blessing) 33:1 - 34:12 Devarim (Deuteronomy)
Vezot
Haberacha is the final sedrah in the book Devarim (Deuteronomy)
and, therefore, in the Torah. The sedrah
takes its name from the first two Hebrew words in the reading. “And this is the blessing (Vezot Haberacha)
wherewith Moshe, man of God blessed the children of Israel before his
death.” It is the only sedrah in the
weekly cycle that is not read on Shabbat.
It is always read on Simchat Torah, the holiday celebrating the
completion and the beginning again of the Torah cycle. The sedrah has two parts. Chapter 33 contains Moshe’s blessing of the
tribes. Chapter 34 describes the death
of Moshe. Rabbi Hertz provides the image
of Moshe walking through the camp on his way to
1. Bereshit
(Genesis) ended with Jacob blessing his sons.
Devarim ends with Moshe blessing the descendants of Jacob’s sons.
2. Moshe
does not mention the tribe of Simeon.
Interestingly enough Simeon does not get a separate blessing from Jacob
either. His blessing is inter-twined
with Levi. Commentators have offered a
variety of reasons for this omission. It
should be noted that in Bereshit, Simeon is the brother who is left behind in
3. The
second verse of chapter 33 reads, “…The Lord came from Sinai, And rose from
Seir unto them; He shined forth from Mount Paran….” According to some commentators, this is a
reference to God having offered the Torah to all the nations of the world
before the Israelites accepted it. Seir
was the
Chapter 34 is the stark description of Moshe ascending
But what does verse 12 mean? The first part of the verse, “and in all the mighty hand” is interpreted as a reference to Moshe receiving the Ten Commandments while “and in all the great terror” is interpreted as a reference to Moshe breaking the first set of Tablets. Why would a sedrah about the Blessing end on what seems to be such a sour, negative note? Rabbi Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, uses the commentaries of Rashi, to show that the breaking of the tablets is not a sour, negative action and that the breaking of the tablets helps to provide a tie between the sedrah and Simchat Torah. At the risk of oversimplification, the argument is as follows. When the Israelites received the first set of tablets, they were a righteous people because they had not sinned with the golden calf. When Moshe saw them with the golden calf, he saw them as apostates and apostates according to Jewish teaching are unworthy of the law. Therefore, he shattered the tablets, even though he did not know if God would approve of such an action. (They were, after all, God’s tablets, not Moshe’s.) After forty days, God seemed to be signaling some level of approval since that was when he called Moshe back for the second set of tablets. The second set of tablets was of greater merit than the first because they were a signal of repentance and a return to God’s ways. The bond between God and the righteous is strong. But the bond between those who return and God is even stronger because it has survived even when we have turned away from God. The Torah is the guide that lets us return to and re-unite with God when we transgress. Furthermore, “Simchat Torah means rejoicing with the Torah and also means rejoicing of the Torah.” In other words we rejoice with the Torah, but by observing and studying the Torah, the Torah rejoices with us.
It took forty days for God to indicate some approval for the shattering of the tablets. But it took forty years, from Sinai to the death of Moshe, for God to place His ultimate seal of approval on Moshe’s act. Moshe showed courage when he broke the tablets. He also showed great faith because he had to have believed that something even greater would follow. (For a fuller explanation, see Torah Studies, pages 342 - 348.)
Second Scroll 1:1-23
Bereshit (Genesis)
The reading describes the events of the first five days of creation. The reading is consistent with the theme of Simchat Torah, the holiday on which we end the Torah reading cycle and start the cycle all over again.
Third Scroll 29:35-30:1
Bamidbar (Numbers)
This is the same portion that is read on Shemini Atzeret and describes the sacrifice of the day.
Haftarah
1:1-18 Joshua
The Man and the Book: The Book of Joshua is the first book in the second part of the Tanach called Neviim or Prophets. Along with Judges, Samuel and Kings, Joshua makes up the section of Neviim known as the Former Prophets. Together these books provide a historic narrative that runs from the death of Moshe to the destruction of the First Temple in 586 B.C.E. Authorship of the book is ascribed to different individuals including Joshua, Eleazar (the son of Aaron) and Pinchas (the grandson of Aaron).
The Book of
Joshua follows logically from the material read at the end of Devarim. Basically, the book of Joshua describes the
conquest of
We know little about the personal life of Joshua. He is the son of Nun and a member of the tribe of Ephraim. The text gives him no family. It is only in legend that he marries Rahab, the reformed harlot who provides him with daughters, but no sons. Actually, Joshua first appears in the Torah as the one whom Moshe commands to select men to fight against the Amalekites. In other words, from the start, Joshua appears as a warrior and as Moshe’s first lieutenant or aid de camp. It is Joshua who ascends part of the way to the top of Sinai with Moshe and Joshua who comes back down with him at the time of the Golden Calf. It is Joshua, along with Caleb, who disputes the claims of the other spies and urges the Israelites to enter the Promised Land. Despite all of this, when it comes time to choose Moshe’s successor, Moshe only asks God to choose a worthy person. He does not ask that Joshua get the job. Rather, Joshua is chosen by God as Moshe’s successor. Moshe is the sun. Joshua is the Moon. Moshe is called the servant of the Lord. Joshua is called the disciple of Moshe. It is an interesting contrast in the roles and personae of the two men. Joshua is an enigmatic, troubling figure. He has drawn the attention of writers as diverse as Elie Wiesel and Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz whose monographs are the source of much of the material you read here.
Joshua is portrayed as a man of the Torah. He is the second link in the tradition cited in Pirke Avot. In the opening chapter of his book, God tells him that his success will be dependent on faithfully adhering to the Torah. Joshua is the political/military leader. But in the Torah, he is told that he will consult with the High Priest before he takes action. The reality is that Joshua and his book are about war; bloody nasty war. This is his claim to fame. He is so good at it that modern Israeli military leaders looked to Joshua for advice on tactics and leadership. He was the original “follow me” commander. Joshua is a masterful military leader. But from the modern perspective, is warfare something that we Jews want to be good at doing? Since waging war means a suspension of our normal moral values, how do we as modern Jews justify it? Moreover, why did Joshua not protest against it? Just as Abraham challenged God to spare Sodom and Gomorrah, why didn’t Joshua challenge God to give the Israelites the Promised Land without slaughtering the inhabitants? If you believe some of the Midrash, the ancient Israelites may have felt some of this same ambivalence since he died alone. At the end of his life, Joshua showed himself to be a gambler and a leader confident in the success of his life’s work. He seems to be giving the Israelites a chance to back out on the covenant. “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served…or the gods of the Amorites; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (25:15). The people promise to cast out other gods and reaffirm their loyalty to God. While our forefathers committed us to the Torah at Sinai, the episode here reminds us that each generation must actively re-commit itself to the Torah and all that goes with it. Joshua is a complex, troubling figure.
The Message: The portion begins with God announcing the death of Moshe. It quickly follows with a restatement of the Covenant made with the forefathers and God’s anointing of Joshua. “As I was with Moshe, so will I be with you (1:5).” Appropriately for a haftarah read on Simchat Torah, God also reminds Joshua that the Torah will be the key to his success. “Do not deviate from it (i.e. Torah) to the right or to the left that you may succeed wherever you go. You shall contemplate it day and night in order to observe, to do, all that is written in it.” (1:7-8) While Joshua is thought of as the great warrior, his success does not rest on his skills as a general. Rather, his success rests on Torah. As the sages say, we study so that we may do.
Theme-link: The haftarah for Simchat Torah and for this sedrah is the first chapter of the book of Joshua. The Torah portion ends with the death of Moshe and Joshua assuming the mantle of leader. So, it is logical that the haftarah would pick up the story line and describe the first days of Joshua’s leadership.
Kohelet
(Hebrew) or Ecclesiastes (English)
The Book: The
Book of Ecclesiastes is read on Shabbat during Sukkoth. Ecclesiastes is found in the third section
of the Tanach, which is called Kethuvim or Writings. Ecclesiastes is one the Five Scrolls or
Megilloth, each of which is read on a particular holiday. The one you are probably most familiar with
is the Scroll of Esther which is read on Purim.
The Hebrew name for Ecclesiastes is Kohelet which is mistranslated as
“preacher.” Actually it is a form of the
Hebrew word for Assembly. The Hebrew
name of the book comes from the second Hebrew word in the first sentence of the
first chapter, “The words of Kohelet, the son of David, king in
The Message: Do not expect these brief comments to unlock the mysteries of Ecclesiastes. According to the learned commentators of The Soncino Tanach, “A large part of the perennial fascination of the book derives from the baffling problems that encompass it. Who was its author? When and where was it written? What is its message? Endless have been the efforts to unravel these mysteries. The final and absolute words yet remain to be said in answer to these questions.” The book is only twelve chapters long and lacks no real organized structure. Rather it is pastiche of repetitious examples of the authors central them: “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity” (1:2).
The author has
apparently led a long life, where he has sampled much of the good things life
has to offer. But in the end, nothing
really matters because everybody dies, and death negates everything. Unlike other books in the Tanach the view of
life is both cynical and cyclical. Life
is boring. Consider some of the
following quotes from this seemingly rambling text. “One generation goes and another comes, but
the earth remains forever. The sun rises
and the sun sets, only to rise again. There is nothing new under the sun. Men may say of something: ‘See, this is new!’
- but it existed long ago before our time. There is one fate for man and beast; as the
one dies, so the other dies…All go to one place; all are from the dust and
return to the dust. Who knows whether
the spirit of man goes upward?” “There
is a time for everything: a time to be born and time to dies; a time to plant
and a time to uproot; a time to kill and time to heal; a time to break down and
time to build up; a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to cast away
stones and a time to gather stones; a time to embrace and a time to repel; a
time to seek and a time to discard; a time to keep and time to throw away; a
time to rend and time to mend; a time to keep silent a time to speak; a time to
love and time to hate; a time for war and a time for peace.” (While some of you know this as rock song by
the Byrds, I can assure you that Pete Seeger beat them to the punch.) “Dead flies make the perfumer fetid and
putrid; so does a little folly outweigh wisdom and understanding.” “Wisdom is better than strength;
nevertheless, the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are not
heard." But in the end, the author
reminds us to “fear God, and keep His commandments; for this is the whole
man. For God shall bring every work into
the judgment concerning every hidden thing, whether it be good or whether it be
evil” (
Theme-Link: According to Rabbi Wayne Dosick, “Ecclesiastes is read on Succoth because Succoth is the fall harvest festival, when the land gives up its produce and when planting for the next harvest is done. Succoth celebrates…the never ending cycle of life.” Ecclesiastes is unique among the writings of Tanach because it emphasizes this cyclical message by stating that “there is nothing new under the sun.” Yet it reminds us that everything has a purpose and a place in the Divine scheme since, “to everything there is a time and a time to every purpose under heaven.” It is one of the five scrolls, each of which is read on a specific holiday. The pessimistic tone of Kohelet stands in stark contrast to the joy of this thanksgiving festival.
Themes (This
is a once over lightly intended to help you understand the Torah
Sukkoth is one of the Three Pilgrimage
Festivals. It is the
The Hoshana are recited as part of seven-part
procession around the synagogue much as you would find on Simchat Torah but
without the joy. There are those who
begin Hoshana Rabbah by staying up all night to read Psalms. The eighth day is called Shemini Atzeret, the
Eighth Day of Assembly. It is a full
holiday complete with two scrolls and a haftarah. In some respects it is viewed as a separate
holiday and “Shehecheyanu” is recited.
Also, the lulav and etrog are no longer used. According to some, Ezra added this eighth day
to keep the people in
Sukkah
It is a mitzvah to build this temporary booth and dwell in it. Most people try and eat their meals in one. According to tradition, one starts building the Sukkah as soon as one gets home from the final Yom Kippur Service. Regardless of all of the literature on the subject nobody really knows what the origin of the Sukkah is.
Lulav and Etrog
The Lulav is a binding of four types of branches - palm, olive, myrtle and willow. The Etrog is yellow citron. There is a special blessing made over these items and they are shaken according to a special formula. (This is not the place for an in-depth discussion of these items.)
Hallel
This a special set of psalms (113-118) recited on holidays and Rosh Chodesh. During Sukkoth, Hallel is recited on all days of the holiday. Considering all of the Torah readings, this helps to make the mornings services during Sukkoth some of the longest of the year.
Tefillin
They are not worn at the beginning of the festival or at the end. There is a debate as to whether they should be worn on Chol Hamoed. My understanding is that some Ashekanzim wear them, but Chasidim and Sephardim do not wear them.
Yizkor
Yizkor, the
service for remembering the souls of the departed, is recited on Yom Kippur and
all three of the major festivals - Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkoth. With death, people are no longer able to
perform acts of righteousness (i.e. give Tzedakah) or offer up prayers. In our prayers, we promise to give Tzedakah
in the name of the departed because had they lived they would have done
so. On the Three Pilgrimage Festivals,
we were commanded to come to
Simchat Torah
Simchat Torah
is a post-biblical holiday. It probably
had its origins in the Babylonian Exile when the Jews of Babylonia adopted the
custom of reading the Torah on an annual cycle.
Others say that Simchat Torah is really the second day of Shemini
Atzeret. Regardless, by the end of the
Middle Ages (16th century), the holiday as we know was an integral
part of the two-week holiday season. Simchat Torah is a joyful holiday. It is the only holiday when the Torah is read
at night. Before the Torah reading, all
of the scrolls are taken from the ark and paraded seven times around the
sanctuary. In many synagogues and
temples, children join in the processions carrying flags and singing songs. Even the most serious of Jews “cut loose” for
Simchat Torah. When carrying the Torah
Scrolls around the sanctuary people have been known to “dance with the Torah”
as an expression of their love for God’s Law and as a sign of thanksgiving that
they have had an opportunity to study for yet another year. In its own way, Simchat Torah may be
considered as “the New Year for the Torah.”
In the days following the destruction of the
Three Scrolls
Three scrolls are used on Simchat Torah. From the first scroll we read Devarim 33 & 34, which concludes the annual cycle. From the second scroll we read Bereshit (1:1-2:3), which starts the annual cycle. From the third scroll we read Bamidbar (29:35-30:1) which describes the sacrifices for Shemini Atzeret. Since Simchat Torah is a post-biblical holiday, there were no sacrifices for this event. At the same time, many of the ceremonials now connected with Simchat Torah were originally part of Shemini Atzeret.
Special Aliyot
The next to the
last Aliyah for Devarim is the children’s Aliyah. All of the children are called to the
Torah. They are led in reciting the
blessings over the Torah by one of the leaders of the congregation. A large tallit is usually held over the heads
of all of the youngsters during the ceremony.
This serves as a reminder of yet another facet of the continuation of
studying the Torah. Not only must we
continue to read it throughout the year, but also we must study it with our
children so that they will continue to study from one generation to the
next. The last person called to the
Torah when finishing Devarim is known as the Chatan Torah, Bridegroom of the
Torah. The person called to the Torah
for the reading from Bereshit is known as Chatan Bereshit, the Bridegroom of
Genesis.
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3 What profit hath man of all his labour wherein he
laboureth under the sun? |
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4 One generation passeth away, and another generation
cometh; and the earth abideth for ever. |
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5 The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth
to his place where he ariseth. |
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6 The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto
the north; it turneth about continually in its circuit, and the wind
returneth again to its circuits. |
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7 All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full;
unto the place whither the rivers go, thither they go again. |
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8 All things toil to weariness; man cannot utter it, the
eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. |
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9 That which hath been is that which shall be, and that
which hath been done is that which shall be done; and there is nothing new
under the sun. |
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10 Is there a thing whereof it is said: 'See, this is
new'?--it hath been already, in the ages which were before us. |
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1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every
purpose under the heaven: {P} |
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2 {S} A time to be born, {S} and a time to die; {N} |
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3 {S} A time to kill, {S} and a time to heal; {N} |
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4 {S} A time to weep, {S} and a time to laugh; {N} |
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5 {S} A time to cast away stones, {S} and a time to gather
stones together; {N} |
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6 {S} A time to seek, {S} and a time to lose; {N} |
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7 {S} A time to rend, {S} and a time to sew; {N} |
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8 {S} A time to love, {S} and a time to hate; {N} |
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13 The end of the matter, all having been heard: fear God,
and keep His commandments; for this is the whole man. |
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