JD: There’s another Jewish Holy Day, a one day Holy Day which is called Simchat Torah. Will you please explain what that is and what the Jewish people do on that day?
WM: Well Jimmy actually in the Bible the holiday of the Feast of Tabernacles had an extra day tacked onto it. The holiday seasons have been completed. The month of Tishrei is over. You all go back to your villages, all the Pilgrims return home. And that was turned into what we call Simchat Torah the joy of the Torah especially in the lands which adds on an extra day. But they added on one to celebrate the joy of the Torah. And because the reading of the Torah the annual cycle of reading weekly portions of the Torah ends at Sukkot and immediately within three minutes we’re off opening up the book of Genesis that we never end the Torah. It’s always continuous. So in that sense we celebrate finishing, ending the cycle and immediately beginning it once again.
JD: You know that’s an exciting example for the Christian community. They’re continually reading through the Torah on a yearly bases, an annual bases they read the entire book.
