[Avodah] What Will be with Simchas Torah?

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, Sep 22, 2020 at 11:25:17PM +0100, Chana Luntz via Avodah 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:
...
> 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....

Because "shesimeichin ve'osin bo se'udas mishteh legamrah shel Torah".
The simchah and making the mishteh are for the completion of the Torah.
And thus the name of the holiday reflects that simchah.

...
> Yes, and mishum simcha is because of the halachic obligation to have simcha
> on yom tov acharon shel chag.

But the Rama doesn't say simchas YT, just "mishum simchah". OTOH, as we
saw, the Rama opens by speaking of the simchah and mishteh of completing
the Torah. So, if he just says "simchah" afterwards, why would I think
it is anything but the "semeichin ... legamra shel Torah" already brought
into the discussion?

You're assuming the Rama changes topics without telling us.

(Of course, I didn't think any of this out before my first post. I
just read the sources, not thinking about other possibilities until it
became a discussion. But I can't say that you convinced me yet that I
brought too many unconscious assumptions to the table, that your read
is comparably viable.)



On Wed, Sep 23, 2020 at 06:12:16AM -0400, Akiva Miller via Avodah wrote:
> Is this "completion of the Torah" necessarily referring to the public
> laining in shul each Shabbos morning? Can it possibly refer just as well to
> our private learning of the parshios...

It refers to the completion that occured that morning, which was indeed
leining.

The AhS ad loc says the party is traditionally paid for with pledges
by the Chasanim. Not, as I see done today, that the qiddush the next
two Shabbosos are.

> Granted that such learning was not an actual chiyuv...

A siyum is a siyum. People make a siyum on a mesechtes gemara that they
had no particular chiyuv to learn over learning something else.

I just don't think we were mesaymim what the minhagim were established
to celebrate.

GCT!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 You will never "find" time for anything.
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   If you want time, you must make it.
Author: Widen Your Tent                        - Charles Buxton
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF