[Avodah] What Will be with Simchas Torah?

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, Sep 21, 2020 at 01:50:14PM +0100, Chana Luntz via Avodah wrote:
> 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)....

I was taught the same line of reasoning besheim haGra. (I emailed RSMandel
to double-check if it was from him, and did he have the mar'eh maqom.
Got impatient holding off this reply for an answer.)

>> 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*..."

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...") And then yes, it lists numerous separate
customs, they are each said to be "mishum simchah" -- not "kevod haTorah".
And since the Rama told you the simchah in question is that of the siyum,
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.

>> 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...

Yes, but we don't take the sifrei Torah out at night for any other yom
tov. It's not "just" simchas YT. So the question is whether I can invoke
sharing in *his* simchah over finishing the Torah to participate.

GCT!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 You are not a human being in search
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   of a spiritual experience. You are a
Author: Widen Your Tent      spiritual being immersed in a human
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF    experience. - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin