[Avodah] What Will be with Simchas Torah?

[Chana Luntz]

RMB wrote:

<<The hagah opens, as you translate, that the simchah is that of completing
the Torah. ("... [L]efi shesemaichin ve'osin bo se'udas mishteh *legamrah
shel torah* venohagim...")>>

Sorry, but I disagree, the language of the Rema is:


וקורין יום טוב האחרון שמחת תורה, לפי ששמחין ועושין בו סעודת משתה לגמרה של
תורה

Which I translated as: "The last day of Yom Tov is called Simchat Torah
because they rejoice and make on it a festive meal for the completion of the
Torah"

That is, the *name* Simchas Torah, which we do not find in the gemora, is
because of the custom of making of completing the Torah.  So maybe you
should argue that *this* year Simchas Torah should not be called Simchas
Torah, but Shmini Atzeres sheni!  He does not say, as you have said "the
simcha is that of completing the Torah*.  


<< And then yes, it lists numerous separate customs, they are each said to
be "mishum simchah" -- not "kevod haTorah".>>

Yes, and mishum simcha is because of the halachic obligation to have simcha
on yom tov acharon shel chag.  Most of the prohibitions however (such as not
taking the sifrei Torah out for no reason, reading over and over, calling up
ketanim) are because of kavod haTorah, ie kavod haTorah is the counterweight
reason *not* to do these minhagim.  However similar to the idea of oseh
docheh lo ta'aseh, the mitzvah of simcha is able push aside certain  kevod
haTorah restrictions in certain circumstances, but clearly not in ones that
are in fact a disgrace to the Torah, but only ones that enhance the simcha
of the Torah. There is no reason for a siyum to push aside prohibitions
relating to kavod haTorah.

<<And since the Rama told you the simchah in question is that of the
siyum,>>

But he didn't he told you that is why the day has that name, not that the
simcha in question is the siyum.  All the different minhagim, including, but
not limited to, having the siyum, are because of simcha.

<< I feel the Rama very much makes the minhagim expressions of the siyum,
and even more questionable if there was no "gamrah shel Torah" in a
community that year.>>

Then he need not have listed them as "v'od nehagu" etc

<<Yes, but we don't take the sifrei Torah out at night for any other yom
tov. It's not "just" simchas YT. >>

But the gemora learns the simcha for yom tov acharon shel chag out of a
separate pasuk to the psukim that we learn it for Sukkos.  Why would Shmini
Atzeres need its only special pasuk with its own special limud, why does the
Torah not combine it with the simcha learnt out for sukkos? The mishna
understands that one is obligated in the same way just like the seven days
of sukkos so why are they not combined in the Torah?  The logical answer is
because there is something somewhat different about the nature of this
simcha (and in fact one might be tempted to darshen the ach, not as the
gemora does to exclude the first night of sukkos, but to say that it is a
day of simcha only, not simcha and sukkah and arba minim, but only simcha).
The custom, and the Rema makes it very clear that it is a custom, of making
the siyum is very late, given that we know that a three year cycle was in
existence for many years, and yet the descriptions of what was going on on
Simchas Torah well predate the universality of the one year cycle
(descriptions amongst the Geonim, inter alia). 

The fundamental mitzvah on Shmini Atzeres/Simchas Torah is therefore ach
sameach!
The interesting question is why in chutz l'aretz, other than amongst those
Sefardim who start the hakafot on Shmini Artzeres, we do *not* take the
sifrei Torah out on Shmini Atzeres.  However, to the extent that one is
sitting in the sukkah on Shmini Artzeret, and it is still thereby linked to
sukkos, then maybe it makes sense that in chutz l'aretz, the day that is ach
sameach, with no link to what went before, is Simchas Torah, despite it only
being yom tov sheini shel golios.

<<So the question is whether I can invoke sharing in *his* simchah over
finishing the Torah to participate.>>

But only if you assume the linkage that, against the explicit language of
the Rema, the cause of all the other minhagim is the siyum, including where
they are otherwise in violation of kevod haTorah, rather than that the
special simcha due to the special pasuk is the cause of all the minhagim
including the siyum.

GCT!
-Micha

Regards

Chana