This Thursday night and Friday, we celebrate completing the Torah. According to the medieval works Or Zarua and Beit Yosef (written by R. Yosef Karo, author of the Shulchan Arukh), the source of this jubilation and happiness is found in Midrash Shir Hashirim. According to the midrash, since Solomon threw a party after God granted him his wisdom, we learn that one should rejoice after completing the Torah.
Rabbi Moses Soloveitchik, father of Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, notices that Solomon does not finish studying a section of Torah before throwing a party. It is rather a celebration of his attainment of wisdom which provides him with a deeper perception of the Torah in his future studies.
This reading of the midrash challenges our assumptions of the basis for rejoicing on Simchat Torah. We are happy not just because we have completed the Torah. We are celebrating our ability to study the Torah anew with a more profound understanding than we when we studied it previously. We are not merry over reading to “le’einei kol yisrael” (in the eyes of all of Israel, the last words of the Torah). Rather, we are celebrating our enhanced aptitude when reading “Bereshit bara elokim” (In the beginning God created, the first words of the Torah). For this reason we read from the creation narrative right after we read the last passage in the Torah. The close proximity of Simchat Torah to Parashat Bereshit this year allows us to immediately study Bereshit more profoundly, which is the real cause for celebration.
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