2019 Index

21 Oct 2019

Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah - 2019

Chevra, tonight and tomorrow are שְׁמִינִי עֲצֶרֶת and שמחת תורה. So there are several interesthing things here. First, these are technically seperate holidays and outside of Israel happen on different days. The idea of finishing reading the Torah every year and restarting only came about during the Babylonian Exile around the 6th Century BCE. One interesting fact is that the last word of the Torah is ישראל and the first word is בְּרֵאשִׁית.