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      The holiday of Simhat Torah asks us to rejoice with the Torah that we have inherited and that we are engaged in creating though our life.
       I've decided instead of matching the song to the theme from now on I will share less familiar Hasidic melodies with you, my readers---Enjoy!                      Hag Sameah!
                                                                               michael   (michaelstrassfeld.com)   
                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                     
Intention/kavana for the week
     Each morning we can ask ourselves the question—where am I, and who do I want to be this day?
Recite:
I want to remember to strive to see everyone as an image of God. Flawed and holy just like me.
I want to be ready to help others with a kind word or gesture.
I want to strive to say yes instead of immediately going to a place of no.
I want to hold all three of the sage Hillel’s teachings simultaneously: If I am not paying attention to my needs, who will do that for me? If I am only concerned about myself, then what kind of person am I? If not now, when?  (Ethics of our Ancestors 1:14).
I want to l ‘a’sok be-divrei torah—to be engaged with  Torah.


 

 
Song 
Skulaner Hopke

A dance (tantz) niggun of the Skulaner hasidim

Beginning this week, instead of trying to connect the music chosen to the theme of the newsletter, I want to share music from lesser known Hasidic groups.
Intention/kavana for the week
     Each morning we can ask ourselves the question—where am I, and who do I want to be this day?
Recite:
I want to remember to strive to see everyone as an image of God. Flawed and holy just like me.
I want to be ready to help others with a kind word or gesture.
I want to strive to say yes instead of immediately going to a place of no.
I want to hold all three of the sage Hillel’s teachings simultaneously: If I am not paying attention to my needs, who will do that for me? If I am only concerned about myself, then what kind of person am I? If not now, when?  (Ethics of our Ancestors 1:14).
I want to l ‘a’sok be-divrei torah—to be engaged with  Torah.


 

 
Song 
Skulaner Hopke

A dance (tantz) niggun of the Skulaner hasidim

Beginning this week, instead of trying to connect the music chosen to the theme of the newsletter, I want to share music from lesser known Hasidic groups.
To listen to the song
A word of Torah:      

     The fall holiday cycle climaxes with the joyous holiday of Simhat Torah. We grasp the Torah scroll in our hands and embrace and dance with it. Why? Because we will carry it and be carried by it in the days and weeks to come. 

     The Torah is our guide not because it tells us how to achieve financial success. It is not a self-help book about: “How to win friends and influence people.” It does not show the way to heaven. It is not even essentially a book of stories or a book of law. It is the source of a 3000 year old discussion by the Jewish people about how to make our life’s journey. We are called on to travel toward a promised land even though we know we will not reach it. It is not the destination but how we make the journey that is critical.
     Our lives, like that of the patriarch Abraham, are framed by the two middle letters of the Hebrew alphabet,  lamed and kof. We are told to go forth—lekh lekha--into a life that will unfold before us. We hope that at the end of our lives we can look back and (again like Abraham in Gen. 24:1) see that our lives are blessed with everything—bakol. From that perspective, the same letters, lamed and kof, are now reversed showing us the totality (kol) of our lives.  We see before us the Torah scroll of our lives unwind as far back as we can glimpse the past.

     Each generation is called to discover  the Torah for our time. For the Torah to be an eitz hayim/a tree of life, it needs to continue to grow in response to the contemporary moment. What is the Torah for our time? It is a Torah that seeks to include not exclude people. It is a Torah seeking to adapt to a world without borders. The Torah is not about making sure you get what you deserve and being careful that others don’t cut the line. It is more about our obligations to others than about our own rights. Its purpose is to remind us that we are still strangers in a strange land. 

     God asks Adam and Eve the first question of the world---ayekha—where are you?  In each moment, we must ask  the same question: where are we? Where is God and how can we bring Godliness or the good into this moment. 

     We do this with gratitude and wonder, with patience and compassion and most of all with simha/joy.
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