Simchat Torah is the most joyous holiday of the year! Simchat Torah helps to celebrate the ending and the restarting of the Torah cycle. Each week we read a different portion of the Torah, called a parsha. Where we read a section of one of the Five Books of Moses, starting with the beginning of Genesis and going all the way to Deuteronomy. We start the Torah each year after celebrating Simchat Torah, where we read the last portion of the Torah. During Simchat Torah we dance with the Torah, in circles called Hakafot which literally means “going around in circles,” we dance with the Torah to symbolism that we have finished the cycle of the Torah and soon we will be starting over. During this time we are reminded about how amazing it is to be Jewish and to be able to read from the Torah, something that we have had for many thousands of years. Throughout our history people have tried to stop us from learning Torah and through all the prosecution we have survived and become stronger than ever. Simchat Torah is a time to remember that we have never given up even when millions of Jews were killed simply because of being Jewish. It is a time to celebrate being with family and being able to study Torah whenever we want . Starting the Torah over each year gives us an opportunity to always learn new interpretations about the stories in the Torah, and that learning Torah is a never ending process. Simchat Torah is a reminder of how amazing it really is to be Jewish. Throughout our history people have tried to get us to stop studying Torah but we have never given up. It is both a time to celebrate and remember what our people have gone through.