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What is Simchat Torah?


Question:

What is Simchat Torah?



AskTheRabbi.org answered:

Jews throughout the world publicly read the entire Five Books of Moses (the complete Torah scroll) in the course of every year. The reading of the Torah is both completed and begun again on Shemini Atzeret , which is the festival following Sukkot. This occasion became known as Simchat Torah, the "Joy of the Torah".  (In Israel it is celebrated on the eighth day, and in the Diaspora on the ninth day). The Midrash traces the concept of rejoicing upon finishing the Torah back to the celebration made by King Solomon when God granted his request for wisdom.


 
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