[Avodah] What Will be with Simchas Torah?

[Chana Luntz]

RMB wrote:

Taking this to Avodah. I wrote on Areivim on Monday, 14-S-2020, 10:41pm EDT:
>  Early in the pandemic, I wondered about the validity of the heteirim 
> we rely on for numerous Simchas Torah minhagim: Leining at night is 
> problematic, but it's only to eliminate the problem of taking out 
> sifrei Torah if it weren't for leining. The number of aliyos. Aliyos 
> given to
> 12 year olds, etc...

BTW you should know that leining at night is not the Sephardi (either Edot
HaMitzrach or Spanish & Portuguese) minhag. So  while it might be that the
Ashkenazi justification for leining at night is to allow for sifrei torah to
come out at night, the Sephardim take the sifrei torah out and do not lein
and do not feel the need for such justification (more than that, they think
it is far more problematic to lein at night than to take the sifrei Torah
out).  Note that that also means that the siyum for the year, even in a
normal year, is not complete (or about to be completed) when the sifrei
Torah are taken out at night, as the first hakafos take place (at latest) on
the night of Simchat Torah, and yet the finishing of the yearly reading only
occurs the next day. 

 Note the reason why I say at latest is because many Sephardim (although not
all) have the custom of doing seven sets of seven hakafot which mean they do
hakafot on Shmini Atzeret as well (three sets on Shmini Atzeret, to
correspond with the three services, three sets on Simchat Torah, to
correspond with the three services, and one after Simchat Torah).

> This year many minyanim missed more than entire chumash. So I asked 
> how we can just assume it's okay to rely on those heteirim to 
> celebrate a siyum that itself is iffy.

There are indeed a whole collection of very iffy heterim for Simchat Torah,
something commented on even by the Beit Yosef and various Rishonim and
Gaonim, but while these iffy heterim are understood universally to be
related to kovod HaTorah, I do not believe the link is generally made the
way you have made it ie to it being a consequence of the siyum al haTorah.
Even the Rema, who indeed brings both in Shulchan Aruch Orech Chaim siman
669 si'if 1 appears to list them as separate customs:

"The last day of Yom Tov is called Simchat Torah because they rejoice and
make on it a feast of joyfulness for the completion of the Torah *and we are
accustomed* to finish the Torah and to begin from Breishit, to vow donations
and to call to others to make a feast.  *And further it is the custom* in
our lands to take out on Simchas Torah both evening and morning all the
sifrei Torah which are in the ark and to say songs and praises and every
place according to its custom.   *And further we are accustomed* to circle
with the sifrei torah the bima which is in the synagogue like we circle with
the lulav *and all is because of joy*  *Further we are accustomed* to call
all the lads to the sefer Torah, ... and in every place according to their
custom. *Further we are accustomed* to finish the Torah even with a child
oleh..."

That is, while you appear to be saying that *because* we make a siyum on the
Torah *therefore* we do all these other halachically iffy customs, even the
Rema does not say this. To the extent he gives a reason, it is "because of
joy", and all the customs are as a result of *that* category.  Which makes
sense, because making a siyum justifies a seudah being considered a seudas
mitzvah (and may justify the name of Simchas Torah, instead of second day
Shmini Atzeret), and there are references in the gemara that seem to justify
the making of a feast for a siyum, although the derivation is not really
that straightforward, nowhere does it allow any of the other behaviour that
might be Halachically iffy.  On the other hand, simcha is a mitzvah d'orisa
on yom tov, and indeed according to Sukkah 48a " It was taught in a braita:
[Devarim 16:16] "and it will be completely joyous" this is to include the
night of the last day of Yom Tov [lelei yom tov acharon]"  Now of course,
that is referring in the Torah to Shmini Artzeret, and it is interesting
that in chutz l'aretz, we seem to have taken the especially joyous
obligation of that d'orisa mitzvah, and attached it to what is the night of
yom tov achron for us, which in fact is only minhag avosaynu b'yadanu.  But
be that as it may, it seems to me that, as the Rema says, the justification
for all of these minhagim is simchas yom tov, and particularly the extra
simcha of the final days of yom tov, and that they are independent of one
another, so that the aspects related to making a siyum on the Torah are
independent of taking the sifrei Torah out, and of doing the hakafos, and of
singing and dancing.  And if anything, the minhag of having a siyum on
completing a full yearly reading of the Torah could perhaps be seen as being
caused by the obligation to create extra joy on Shmini Atzeret/Simchas
Torah, and not the other way around.  We have arranged our schedules so that
we have the joy of completely the Torah on this day, as Torah learning is in
and of itself a form of joy (see eg the introduction to the Eglei Tal), so
we arrange them to coincide.

> I am not sure what we would be marking with 7 simple trips around the 
> bimah, given the gap for Shemos and Vayiqra my qehillah has in this 
> year's leining. But if we psychologically need to pretend there is a 
> Simchas Torah this year, and that too has medical positives, how can 
> anyone argue for more but the barest minimum to satisfy that 
> psychological need for the majority of people?

But again, this assumes that all the minhagim on Simchas Torah are a direct
result of the siyum, which I do not believe is the case.  It is important to
have Simchas Yom Tov, and to do what we can to maximise simchas Yom Tov, and
if the siyum part is not possible, but the other parts are, then the other
parts should be done.

<<But my point on Areivim, just like the point I made here to begin with,
was more about most of the minhagim for celebrating Simchas Torah are on the
defensive. We lein at night. (At least most of us do.) We take out more
sifrei Torah than we read from. We give way too many people aliyos.
We are relying on heteirim on a slew of dinim about kavod ST and qeri'as
haTorah. We need a certain level of justification for it.

We don't have to just say that ST celebrates someone else's completion of
the Torah -- we need to be able to argue that's true strongly enough to
justify those heteirim.>>

And the classic justification for these heterim is that the aseh of simcha
is docheh, as per the Rema.  However, because we are taking about simcha
that is required by the Torah, it is linked to and part and parcel with
simcha with the Torah - without the Torah there would be no obligation of
such simcha, so simcha that is antithetical to the Torah, ie does not
encompass kavod haTorah, is not justified.

Which is why I am not even convinced that it is a tzibbur versus yachid
thing.  Would there be a problem if a Rav, who happened to live above the
shul, took out the sefrei Torah and did hakafos with them with his family
around an empty shul, because he was restricted by Covid requirements to his
bubble, which did not contain a minyan?  I'm not sure there would.  There
are potential issues with leining, and even more so with making birchas
haTorah on such layning, but do we consider hakafos as a dvar shebekedusha
that absolutely has to have a minyan?   It is post gemara, so it is not so
clear it can be a dvar shebekedusha, which might need to have been
instituted by the Anshei Knesset Hagadola or at least not to be post Ravina
and Rav Ashi (that might also turn on whether you follow the Aruch
haShulchan and the Rokach, who hold that kaddish was instituted by the
Anshei Knesset HaGadola, and that is what justifies its status as a dvar
shebekedusha, or whether you follow the Shibbolei Ha-Leket and the teshuvas
HaGeonim which seem to suggest that the whole institution of kaddish within
prayer was instituted by the Geonim (and if so, whether a takana of the
Geonim is and remains binding or it does not)).

<<Of course, a full Simchas Torah observance isn't safe right now either
way.>>

But simcha on yom tov would seem to be an individual obligation as well as
something of an obligation of the tzibbur (the tzibbur would seem to be
needed in order to make sure that we are making the widow happy).  So to the
extent that it is dependent upon simcha, then that obligation remains, even
if the minhagim of the tzibbur, ie the way the tzibbur traditionally
performs such simcha, might not be possible at the present time, and hence
is not an obligation.

-Micha

Gmar Tov

Chana