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The Charlotte Jewish News - October 2018 - Page 36 Simchat Torah Doesn’t Have to be a “Men’s Holiday” By Sarah Rudolph (Kveller via JTA) - There seems to be a widespread mis conception in the Orthodox world that the upcoming holiday of Sim chat Torah is a “men’s holiday.” 1 can understand the coirfusion, stemming from what we celebrate and how we celebrate it. Simchat Torah has evolved as a celebration of the armual cycle of weekly Torah readings —read ings that in Orthodox shuls oc- cm purely on the men’s side of the mechitza, or divider. And we celebrate it by taking all the To rah scrolls out of the ark — also on the men’s side — and danc ing seven circuits, or hakafot, with them. There is much joyful singing, generally in a masculine timbre, and the dancing men take turns holding the heavy scrolls. With so much action naturally taking place on the other side, 1 can understand — sort of — why things tend to be much less live ly on my side of the mechitza. Depending on the community, the women might dance, but it is rarely as exuberant, as populated or as sustained as the men’s danc ing. My childhood memories of the holiday involve a core group of women who enjoyed dancing and would try to get things going, while most of the women might join for a few minutes in between their primary activities of chat ting, chasing sugared-up children (did 1 mention excessive candy often plays a role in the celebra tions?) and watching the men. From what 1 have experienced and heard since, my shul was fair ly typical, though in many places the women don’t dance at all — or even show up. My husband likes to tell of the girl he once dated who was sur prised at the suggestion that she might go to shul on Simchat To rah. “Why would 1 go?” she asked. “1 have no one to watch.” For her, 1 think, it was accepted as a matter of course that dancing on Simchat Torah is what men do, and she wouldn’t have ever imag ined that she could — or should — have a part in it. Photo courtesy of Kveller.com. For others, the questions around women and Simchat Torah are more fraught — and many focus on the Torah scrolls themselves, arguing that if the women can’t dance with a To rah, then they feel excluded, like their dancing is pointless. Indeed, in more recent years, as this sort of discomfort with gender dis parities has increased, many rab bis have concluded that there is no real halachic problem with a woman carrying a Torah scroll, and in some shuls a scroll or two will be passed to the women’s side for the dancing. This is the part where 1 have a harder time understanding. So often 1 hear some version of either, “My rabbi lets the wom en have a Torah, so the women’s dancing is nice,” or “The women in my shul don’t have a Torah, so it’s lame; they just stand around talking and watching the men dance.” It is really easy to blame the men and the rabbis. It is real ly easy to say, “If only we were granted equal rights and could dance with a Torah scroll, we would dance and celebrate, too.” It is really easy to say, “Fm not going to shul if the women are just going to sit around schmooz ing and watching the men. It’s a men’s holiday; 1 don’t feel a part of it.” It’s really easy to say those things, but if 1 may be frank, 1 think it’s all baloney. We have an equal right to Torah. Fm not talking about holding the scroll; that, to my mind, is secondary. The real point is that we have an equal right to rejoice in our sacred heritage. Nobody is mak ing us chat; ultimately, no one is stopping us from dancing. If it’s a men’s holiday, that is because we let it be. We can unite and take back Simchat Torah. We can choose to dance. And we don’t need a scroll to do it. What are we dancing for, after all? On Simchat Torah, 1 dance for the concept of Torah, not the ob ject. 1 dance for myself and my love of Torah study. 1 dance for the joy of the completed cycle of reading, and 1 dance for the joy of beginning all over again. 1 dance because 1 will shortly have tears in my eyes, like 1 do every year, as 1 listen to the account of Mo ses’ death in the last few verses of the Torah. 1 dance because 1 will shortly be awed, as 1 am every year, when we begin again and read, “And it was evening, and it was morning, one day.” The very beginning of everything; something, where there had been nothing. 1, too, can make something from nothing, in my own little way. 1 can walk into a women’s section full of schmoozing wom en and wild kids, grab some hands and create a circle of joy. 1 can re joice in Torah, and nothing — no object or lack of it, no mechitza, no rows of chairs presenting a lo gistical challenge — will stop me. 1 only hope, this year, the oth er women on my side get up and dance, too. ^ (Sarah Rudolph lives in Cleve land with her family. She has been teaching Jewish text stud ies for over 10 years to students ranging from elementary school to retirement age.) 2018-2019 Annual Fund Going on Now! Your Annual Fund Contributions Elevate Our Ability To... LEARN - Professional development for our staff & special programs for our children GROW - Infrastructure and technology improvements for our school. CONNECT- Stronger relationships with our families, staff & community members. CP is a partnership of Temple Beth El, Temple Israel & UCC ^ Charlotte J| Jewish Preschool LEARN • GROW • CONNECT
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