Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaledition.com/i/739920
where there's a will, There's a way forward. At 100 years young, Manny Silverman is having his cake and eating it too! He has loving caregivers in his cousin 9LFNLKHUVLJQLʳFDQWRWKHU'HYOLQDQGWKHFDULQJVWDIIDW WKH-96'RURWK\DQG3HWHU%URZQ-HZLVK&RPPXQLW\$GXOW 'D\3URJUDP7KH%URZQ&HQWHURSHUDWHGLQSDUWQHUVKLS ZLWK-HZLVK6HQLRU/LIHSURYLGHVVWLPXODWLQJDFWLYLWLHVIRU LQGLYLGXDOVZLWK$O]KHLPHUȤVGLVHDVHDQGRWKHUIRUPVRI GHPHQWLD Ȧ0\IDYRULWHWKLQJDERXW0DQQ\FRPLQJWR-96LVWKDW KHIHHOVOLNHKH VJRLQJWRWKH-HZLVK&HQWHUȧH[SODLQV 9LFNLȦ+HFRPHVRQ)ULGD\EHFDXVHWKH%URZQ&HQWHUKDV 6KDEEDWVHUYLFHVVRPH)ULGD\VDQGKHORYHVWKDW(YHU\- ERG\KHUHDW-96LVVRNLQGDQGVRVZHHWDQGVRDWWHQWLYH .QRZLQJWKDWKH VFOHDQIHGJLYHQDOONLQGVRIDWWHQWLRQ ORYHGDQGVDIHWKDW VIURPWKHKHDUW7KDW VSXUHNLQGQHVVȧ )RU\HDUV-96KDVEHHQThe Way Forward to care and NLQGQHVVIRUVHQLRUVDQGWKHLUIDPLOLHV Find your way forward at www.jvsdet.org 2121570 October 20 • 2016 37 The Gift Of Torah Sukkot Shabbat Chol HaMoed: Exodus 33:12-34:26, Numbers 29:26-31; Ezekiel 38:18-39:16. T ishrei is a month replete with holidays. Rosh Hashanah is the Day of Judgment. We stand before God imploring to be inscribed and sealed for a sweet new year. Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement and the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. It is spent in fasting and prayer, prompting God to pardon our iniquities. Sukkot is biblically called the "holiday of our rejoicing." It fol- lows the intense prayer-filled holidays as we celebrate our great fortune of being forgiven by our Father in heaven. But as the holidays begin to conclude, the party is about to intensify. The grand finale of Simchat Torah has come: a holiday of song, dance and rejoicing. Throughout the year, we read and study the Torah. Every week, we learn a new portion. The holiday is the culmina- tion of a yearlong study. Synagogues host the hakafot, the Simchat Torah ritual dancing. We dance with the Torah scroll, celebrating the end of the previous cycle and the beginning of a new one. The Torah is commonly viewed as a text given by God to Moses, who transferred it to the Jewish nation. It has its own class of scholars who study it in depth and act on its discipline. Interestingly enough, during the hakafot, the Torah is never studied from. We celebrate with exuberant dancing and the Torah is clutched tightly, cherished by the dancers. Everyone is invited, even those who have never studied and those who lack in their adherence to its disci- pline. In the last portion of the Torah, Moses gives his departing message to his people. He reminds them of the gift God had given them at Sinai. "The Torah that Moses commanded us is an inheritance for the congregation of Jacob." Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe of blessed memory, expounded that an inheritance is bequeathed from parent to child. No matter the state of the child, his traits, talents or genius, he inherits his parents' estate. Similarly, the Jewish people are God's children. God gave the Torah to every Jew as an inheritance. No matter his observance or participation, the Jew inherits the Torah. On Simchat Torah, the study of the Torah is finished. It is a cause for celebra- tion. However, the celebration isn't con- fined to its study. It is a celebration of a higher dimension of Torah. The Torah is a legacy that belongs to the Jewish peo- ple at their essence, as children of God. Every Jew can dance with the Torah because therein lies the deep core con- nection of a Jew to his Father in heaven. Therefore, the Torah remains in its mantle over Simchat Torah because at hakafot we celebrate, not its content, rather, it as a treasure deeply connected with us. Today, people are soul-searching. Looking for their calling: to find them- selves. Pick a synagogue. Pick up the Torah. Do you feel connected? Celebrate. Disconnected? Reconnect and celebrate, too. * Rabbi Mendel Stein is development director of Lubavitch Yeshiva-International School for Chabad Leadership in Oak Park. Rabbi Mendel Stein » t o r a h p o r t i o n