Neviim Tovim, blogs by Gillian Gould Lazarus

David in Jerusalem, February 1990

After getting the diagnosis of oesophagal cancer in September 1989, my husband David Gould was given the honour in the synagogue of being Chatan Torah at the festival of Simchat Torah, in October. The Chatan Torah, which means literally ‘Bridegroom of the Law’, has the task of reading the last few verses of Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the Pentateuch before the cycle recommences with the opening verses of Genesis, read minutes later by the similarly honoured Chatan Bereshit, the ‘Bridegroom of Genesis’ or ‘of the beginning’ as the word Bereshit means ‘In the beginning.’

It was known in the kehilah, the community, that David was seriously ill at the age of 41 and indeed chemotherapy had started, so, when he took to the pulpit, it could be seen that he had lost some weight and some hair. But my memory is already unpinning the facts, because I suddenly recall that David was too ill to attend the evening service, erev Simchat Torah. By the morning he was strong enough to go to the synagogue and do all that was required. Something I will never forget, often spoken of by others who were in the congregation, is that he sang the blessings after the haftarah with his eyes closed and a transcendent expression, singing all three blessings following the prophetic reading, whereas, in our Reform synagogue, it was customary to read only the last of the three. He had an operatic voice and was very good looking, even with the illness and its treatment, and it would have been memorable for anyone who was there.

In the thirty-six Simchat Torahs which followed, I remembered that 1989 service. Sukkot and Simchat Torah which concludes the week of the festival are called ‘z’man simchatenu,’ the season of our rejoicing, and that is what it is supposed to be.

Everyone knows that the massacre of 7 October 2023 occurred at Simchat Torah. The kibbutzim of Be’eri, Kfar Aza, Nir Oz, Re’im, Netiv HaAsara, Alumim, Nahal Oz, the towns of Sderot and Ofakim and the Nova music festival all came under attack with many murdered and others kidnapped. As an acquaintance remarked on Facebook, ‘Simchat Torah is forever stained by the catastrophe of 7/10/2023,’ but it was not we who stained it. I know from my study of the Holocaust that there was no Jewish festival or notable day when atrocities were not perpetrated by the German occupiers against Jews of the ghettos, camps or cities where they could be hunted down. It was not only on Tisha b’Av, a day of mourning, when they rose up against us.

However, it is now a sad time rather than ‘the season of our rejoicing’ and, at my own synagogue, they will carry the Torah scrolls in silence for one of the circuits which used to be accompanied by joyful song.

I will not be there, which I regret, as I will be abroad, which I do not regret, as it will be for a happy reunion.

On 14 October 1663, diarist Samuel Pepys visited the synagogue in Creechurch Street and was shocked by what he considered the disorder of what was a jubilant Simchat Torah service.

...after dinner my wife and I, by Mr Rawlinson’s conduct, to the Jewish Synagogue: where the men and boys in their vayles, and the women behind a lattice out of sight; and some things stand up, which I believe is their Law, in a press to which all coming in do bow; and at the putting on their vayles do say something, to which others that hear him do cry Amen, and the party do kiss his vayle. Their service all in a singing way, and in Hebrew. And anon their Laws that they take out of the press are carried by several men, four or five several burthens in all, and they do relieve one another; and whether it is that every one desires to have the carrying of it, I cannot tell, thus they carried it round about the room while such a service is singing. And in the end they had a prayer for the King, which they pronounced his name in Portugall; but the prayer, like the rest, in Hebrew. But, Lord! to see the disorder, laughing, sporting, and no attention, but confusion in all their service, more like brutes than people knowing the true God, would make a man forswear ever seeing them more and indeed I never did see so much, or could have imagined there had been any religion in the whole world so absurdly performed as this.

I think I would have liked to be at that Simchat Torah service at Creechurch Street. If I ever get the means to time travel, perhaps I’ll see it for myself, although of course from behind the mechitzah, the lattice which Pepys mentions, behind which the women were secluded.

From one year to the next, there is no counting on rejoicing but one can count on the words which are always read out at this time:

וְלֹא־קָ֨ם נָבִ֥יא ע֛וֹד בְּיִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל כְּמֹשֶׁ֑ה אֲשֶׁר֙ יְדָע֣וֹ יְהֹוָ֔ה פָּנִ֖ים אֶל־פָּנִֽים׃

Never again did there arise in Israel a prophet like Moses—whom GOD singled out, face to face,

לְכׇל־הָ֨אֹתֹ֜ת וְהַמּוֹפְתִ֗ים אֲשֶׁ֤ר שְׁלָחוֹ֙ יְהֹוָ֔ה לַעֲשׂ֖וֹת בְּאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרָ֑יִם לְפַרְעֹ֥ה וּלְכׇל־עֲבָדָ֖יו וּלְכׇל־אַרְצֽוֹ׃

for the various signs and portents that GOD sent him to display in the land of Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his courtiers and his whole country,

וּלְכֹל֙ הַיָּ֣ד הַחֲזָקָ֔ה וּלְכֹ֖ל הַמּוֹרָ֣א הַגָּד֑וֹל אֲשֶׁר֙ עָשָׂ֣ה מֹשֶׁ֔ה לְעֵינֵ֖י כׇּל־יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃

and for all the great might and awesome power that Moses displayed before all Israel.

Deuteronomy 34:10 -12

They are followed, every year by these words:

בראשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ

When God began to create heaven and earth—

וְהָאָ֗רֶץ הָיְתָ֥ה תֹ֙הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ וְחֹ֖שֶׁךְ עַל־פְּנֵ֣י תְה֑וֹם וְר֣וּחַ אֱלֹהִ֔ים מְרַחֶ֖פֶת עַל־פְּנֵ֥י הַמָּֽיִם׃

the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from God sweeping over the water—

וַיֹּ֥אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֖ים יְהִ֣י א֑וֹר וַֽיְהִי־אֽוֹר׃

God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.

Genesis 1:1-3