[Avodah] minhag simchat tora

[rabbirichwolpoe at gmail.com]

Danny Schoemann:
> Correct. The Hakofos consisted of the Chazzan - followed by 14 other
> people carrying the other Seforim - circling the Bima, once per
> Hakofo.
...
> The only others to stray from their seats were the kids who circled
> the shul with their buckets collecting a year's supply of toothache.

At my "old shul" viz. COS, we did as follows:

At night I made qiddush first, then
I lead atta hor'eisa responsively

We took out 3 s'farim for hakkafos - inclduing a "mini" sefer

I switched with another in chanting "Ana Hashem" etc.

We then "marched" around the bima for each hakkafah singing one tune.
(It was similar to hoshanos)

One or two non-yekkes really danced, but not the rest of the shul.

For agil v'esmach, hiskabtzu, nagila v'nismach etc. I simply sang the
verses and the tzibbur jointly sang the refrain. No dancing.

Candy was given out freely to kids both @ COS and at Breuer's. It was
lehavdil like trick or treat.
A Dentist's brother was in the candy business - and gave out a lot
in order to drum up business for his brother! :-) (well that was his
koke anyway)

During night hakkafos people took a l'hayyim of schappes.

In the day aliyos were given to groups, EG all the kohaim, al the levi'im,
all board members.

People did morning qiddush either during hakkafos or after their aliya.

In the early days the receptions for chassan torah and chassan breishis
were on Shabbas Breishis
Later, We moved it to Simchas Torah itself and had a sit down meal with
a buffet or smorgasboard in the social hall.

If Simchas Torah was not erev Shabbos, we davened minchah after bentsching

KT
RRW
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