Every so often, a question posed to me is, why do we celebrate Simchas Torah – dancing with the Torah – on the Holiday of Shemini Atzeres? It would seem to be a more befitting time to celebrate with the Torah on the holiday of Shavuos, which marks the time when G-d gave us the Torah at Mount Sinai.
In the 1700’s there was a great Rabbi by the name of Rabbi Yaacov Kranz. He was the Rabbi in the City of Dubna. He assumed the title of the Dubna Maggid – storyteller, because he was a wonderful orator who had the ability to bring home a point through the power of a story. The Dubna Maggid would travel from city to city and deliver his speeches in the local synagogues.
The story is told, that the Dubna Maggid was visiting the great Vilna Goan, and he asked the Vilna Goan the aforementioned question. Why do we celebrate Simchas Torah on Shemini Atzeres and not on Shavuos? The Vilna Goan had an affinity for the Dubna Maggid, and rather than answering the question, he said he would rather listen to an answer from the Dubna Maggid himself.
The Dubna Maggid related the following story.
There was this wonderful king and queen who had everything they wanted, that was, except for one thing; they didn’t have children. They went to the best doctors and even soothsayers for help, but nothing helped.
One of their advisors suggested that the king go to a Jewish Sage who was known to have the power of dispensing powerful and effective blessings.
The king listened to the advice and went to the Sage with his request. He guaranteed the Sage that he would be extremely good to the Jews if his blessing worked.
The Sage got up and began to pray. When he was done, he told the king that his wife, the queen will have a daughter in a year. However, he stipulated one condition to the king, that this daughter will not be permitted to see a man until after her marriage; for the moment she would see a man before her marriage, she would die.
The king had no choice, and agreed to this difficult condition.
Sure enough, the queen became pregnant, and she relocated to a far-off palace with her maidservants to have her baby. Indeed, she gave birth to a girl and she was raised in a female environment where she received the top-notch education.
The queen would regularly report back to the king about his daughter’s beauty, her development and educational progress – since the king could not see his daughter.
When the princess reached marriageable age, the king sent scouts to all provinces to seek out a groom for her. However, once the potential candidate found out that he was not allowed to see the princess until after the marriage ceremony, they demurred, for they thought that the condition was made due to the fact that the princess had a chronic illness or had terrible character traits.
Finally, one of the king’s officers agreed to marry the unseen princess after he was promised a great dowry.
An intimate wedding was held at the palace. After the marriage when the groom finally saw the princess he was awed by her beauty. However, he still had his doubts about her personality – and wondered what could she possibly be hiding?
However, after spending time conversing and living with her and getting to know her, he was stunned by her intelligence, grace and finesse.
A few months after the marriage, the groom went to the king to compliment him about his daughter and came with the following interesting request. “Can you please make a second wedding celebration for us?” The king was surprised by the request and asked his son in law, “why?”
His son in law explained, “You see, when I at first married your daughter, I really was unsure of anything about her, since I went in blindly. Understandably, my joy was incomplete during the initial celebration since I did not know what I was getting into. However, now, after I appreciate her goodness, kindness and intelligence, I wish to celebrate our marriage in its fullness.” The king appreciated his son in law’s reasoning and made a huge celebration.
The Dubner Maggid turned to the Vilna Goan, and said, this is what happened with G-d and the Jewish people. G-d had gone to all the prophets of the nations of the world asking if they would accept the Torah, and they all rejected it.
However, one nation, when they were approached to accept the Torah from G-d, responded in unison, “We will do and will listen.” That nation was Klal Yisroel – the Jewish nation. They accepted the Torah without first seeing it – for they said, “We will do and then listen to what it is about.”
However, on Shavuos, the Jews accepted the Torah blindly. They did not know exactly what the Torah was all about, and it was not the time for a full celebration.
A few months later, after studying it and recognizing the true beauty, depth, and holiness of the Torah, and realizing that it is inestimable, then the Jews truly appreciated the great gift of Torah. It was then they could truly celebrate their ‘wedding relationship’ with the Torah.
After experiencing atonement for our sins on Yom Kippur, we were given the joyful seven-day holiday of Succos, which is followed by an intimate parting holiday of Shemini Atzeres. During Shemini Atzeres, a short few months after Shavuos, is a most opportune time for us to truly celebrate the greatest gift we received, Hashem’s Torah!
