Sukkot & Simchat Torah

Have a hakafah — a parade dancing in circles with a (toy or real) Torah and flags.

Children wonder and discover; you facilitate more than you lecture.

• Where do our Jewish stories come from?
• Where does the Torah live?
• How does it feel to dance with the Torah?

On Simchat Torah we finish reading the Torah and start again. We dance in circles (hakafot) holding the Torah with great joy.

• Torah — our scroll of stories
• Hakafah — dancing circle
• Simcha — joy

“Why start the story over?”

Because we love it so much we want to read it again — and we always find something new.

• Children recognize the Torah scroll and know it holds our stories.
• Children experience joyful celebration of Torah.

Offer flag-waving or marching as alternatives for children who prefer not to dance; everyone joins their own way.

Folktale. The Aleph-Bet That Flew to Heaven (Hasidic) — a boy who could not read offered just the letters, and his simple prayer flew highest of all.

Changemaker. Our sukkah builders — a few volunteers who put it up every autumn, in the cold, so that anybody walking past can come in and sit down.

I wonder what story I would most love to dance with?

“We danced with the Torah! Ask your child to show you their hakafah. Try at home: parade with a favorite book you love to re-read.”