Posted in Holidays

Simchas Torah was last Friday culminating what is basically a month of holidays. Simchas Torah means "Celebration of the Torah" and it is the day we finish reading the Torah - and start all over again.

For those that don't know, Jewish Torah study is different than others.  We are very organized and systematic about it in many ways.  The Torah is divided up into weekly readings from beginning to end - and no matter what synagogue you go into anywhere in the world they will be doing that week's reading.  We read it cover to cover every year and then start all over again.  Simchas Torah is the day we start all over again (and the day we finish).  We finish and start again on the same day so that we are always reading the Torah.  It is the most precious gift, HaShem could ever give us.

There is something very "circle of life" about Simchas Torah.  We read about the death of Moses immediately followed by the creation of the world.  You can't help but find solace in this.  It is this immensely spiritual feeling - almost overpowering!

There is a midrash that tells how HaShem decided to give the Jewish people His Torah.  He first went to all the other nations and offered it to them, but they all refused.  Finally He turned to the Jewish people and offered it to us and we were eager to have it.

HaShem asked : OK, why should I give it to you?
Jewish people:  Because we love you and want to follow your commandments!
HaShem: Sorry, that isn't really good enough.
People: Then give it to us in honor of our ancestors -Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebeccah, Jacob and Rachel and Leah.  They loved you and served you well.
HaShem: Sorry, that isn't really a good reason either.
People:  Then give it to us for the merit of our children.  We will teach them to love and honor you and follow your commandments forever.
HaShem:  Now THAT is a good reason!

For me the most wonderful thing about Judaism is how much of it revolves around our children - teaching them to love and honor HaShem and respect His commandments.  Almost all of our holidays incorporate our children into them -almost as if they were designed for them.  Simchas Torah is no exception.  We bring out every Torah in the community and dance with them for hours around the shul.  We bring them out into the streets and sing and dance with them in a parade.  Children hold their own smaller Torahs and wave flags proclaiming the greatness of HaShem.  CPG says that Simchas Torah is her favorite holiday - and I have to agree with her.

So am I just babbling or does any of this have to do with homeschooling? Actually it does.  At services, I was talking with one of the Day School teachers and she was saying how difficult it is to get any school work done for the first month of school.  It is just holiday and holiday after holiday and it is very disruptive to their schedule.  This is a common complaint - especially when you realize that they have had 16 days off in the past month!  At the same time, last week someone on a Jewish homeschooling loop posted this questions "How do you manage to get any school work done with all the Holidays?"

And the answer is:  "I don't"

To me that is part of the beauty of homeschooling!  The Holidays come every year!  There is no excuse for being surprised by them. So I plan for them.  Anyone that pulled out my calendar in August would have seen that there were 3 weeks in Sept/Oct that I planned as "no school" weeks.  Did that mean we weren't going to learn those weeks?  Of course not.  But rather than focusing on reading and math, we would focus on HaShem and his commandments.  They learned about preparing for the holidays and Jewish laws of the Holidays and celebrating the holidays -and that HaShem comes before all else.  Did they learn this by sitting with me every day and reading a book?  No-  although of course there was some of that too.  They learned by doing it, by standing next to me and helping me.  By participating in a way that they would just never be able to do if we didn't homeschool.  By being there for not just the holidays - but the preparations for them as well-  they have a much better understanding of the holidays than they would have had if they hadn't been here.

As for more formal school type work - well I plan for that too.  I would never start something I knew we couldn't finish just before the holidays.  I also got books to read that tied into our school subjects so we could read during the holidays.  For example, we read a wonderful book about Rashi - who lived in France in the 11th Century and taught us a lot about the persecution of the Jews during this time period.  So what we were learning before is still kept in their mind.

So today we are able to move forward into a more "normal" schedule and not feel rushed or overwhelmed -just ready to continue right where we left off.