Simchat Torah 2040

The dates

Simchat Torah is the day the annual reading of the Torah is finished and started again in the same breath, and the scrolls themselves are danced with. Outside Israel it falls on 23 Tishrei, the day after Shemini Atzeret; in Israel the two are a single day, on the 22nd. This year that is 30/9/40 (Sunday).

It is the last festival of Tishrei and the day that closes the whole run of them. What follows is Cheshvan, the one month of the year with nothing marked in it at all, which is why the day feels less like the end of a reading cycle and more like the last evening of a long holiday.

An extra day, and a name added later

There is no festival called Simchat Torah in the Torah, and nothing there connects this day to the reading of the Torah. What there is, is one extra day attached to Sukkot: "On the eighth day you shall hold a holy convocation… it is a solemn assembly; you shall not work at your occupations" ¹. Shemini Atzeret, a festival day that comes after the seven and is not one of them: no hut, no four species.

The name Simchat Torah arrived far later, out of the custom that fixed the reading of the Torah in a yearly cycle ending precisely on this day. The Shulchan Arukh describes the mechanics plainly: three scrolls are taken out, the first read from the closing portion to the end of the Torah, the second "from Genesis to which God created to do" ².

That small detail is the entire idea. You do not finish and come back to it next week. You finish and begin again in the same motion, before anyone has sat down.

What people actually do

Hakafot. In the evening and again the next morning, every Torah scroll in the synagogue is taken out of the ark and carried seven times around the reading platform, with singing and dancing. Rema, describing Ashkenazi practice some five hundred years ago, put it exactly like that: "they have the custom of circling the synagogue platform with the Torah scrolls, as one circles with the lulav — and all of it for the sake of joy" ³. Between one circuit and the next everyone stops to sing, and in many communities the whole thing runs for hours.

Chatan Torah and Chatan Bereshit. The two great honours of the day: one person called up for the last reading in the Torah, another for the opening verses of Genesis. Both are titled chatan, bridegroom, and in many communities they host a kiddush for everyone afterwards.

Kol HaNe'arim. One of the very few customs in the year meant for children alone: all the children of the congregation come up to the Torah together, with a large prayer shawl spread over them like a canopy.

Flags and apples. Children carry paper flags, traditionally topped with an apple and a candle. The apple has mostly given way to stickers and sweets; the flag survived.

Hakafot Shniyot. In Israel, once the festival has ended, dancing moves out into streets and squares for a "second round" of hakafot, often with a band. It began as a gesture of solidarity with Jews abroad, for whom the festival is only starting that evening.

Rain. The prayer for rain is said for the first time in the additional service of Shemini Atzeret, and rain is mentioned in the liturgy from then through the winter. On the agricultural calendar of the land of Israel, this is the hinge of the year.

Where the meal came from

Alongside the dancing the day has a second, quieter custom: a meal held to mark the completion of the Torah. Rema writes that the day is called Simchat Torah "because people rejoice and hold a festive meal on it for the completion of the Torah" ³, and that custom has a surprising source.

It rests on a verse in the book of Kings with no festival and no Torah reading anywhere near it. Solomon dreams at Gibeon and is granted wisdom, and then: "Solomon awoke, and behold, it was a dream. He came to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord… and he made a feast for all his servants" ⁴. The midrash stops on the last clause: "Rabbi Yitzchak said: from here we learn that a meal is made for the completion of the Torah" ⁵.

Which is to say: a king receives the greatest gift of his life, and the proof that it is really his is that he throws a dinner. Not a speech, not a monument: a dinner, and for all his servants.

Every siyum in Jewish life descends from that: finish a tractate, a book, a cycle of study, and you feed people. Simchat Torah is the largest of them, the one a whole community holds together.

Ending and beginning in one motion

You might expect the festival named for the Torah to put study at its centre. It does the opposite: almost nobody studies on this day. The scroll is lifted, closed, and danced with.

The statement in that is hard to miss. The book held in people's arms is the same book read from all year, except that today nobody opens it; the relationship is physical rather than intellectual, and someone who cannot read a word of it takes an equal part.

The structure of the day says the rest. The reading is sealed and immediately reopened at Genesis, without a pause. Meaning: there is no ending. There is a point at which you return to the beginning and find that it reads differently now that you have read everything that follows it.

In Israel the day has carried something else since 5784. Simchat Torah of that year fell on 7 October 2023, the day of the massacre in the communities around Gaza, and the Hebrew date has held that memory ever since, alongside the festival, which continues to be kept.

Common questions about Simchat Torah

When is Simchat Torah?

Outside Israel Simchat Torah falls on 23 Tishrei (30/9/40). In Israel it falls a day earlier, on 22 Tishrei (29/9/40), together with Shemini Atzeret.

When does it start and end?

It begins in the evening, as Shemini Atzeret ends, and ends at nightfall the following day (30/9/40). The two-day festival period as a whole opens at candle-lighting the evening before Shemini Atzeret (27/9/40). Exact times for your location appear at the top of this page.

What is the difference between Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah?

Shemini Atzeret is the day the Torah itself sets, 22 Tishrei, on which the prayer for rain is said. Simchat Torah is the name given to the day on which the annual Torah cycle ends and the scrolls are danced with. Outside Israel they are two consecutive days; in Israel they are one day with two names.

Why is Simchat Torah kept a day later outside Israel?

Because of the second festival day observed in the Diaspora: every biblical festival day is kept there for two days, a practice fixed when the new month was declared by witnesses and word did not always arrive in time. So Shemini Atzeret falls there on 22 Tishrei and Simchat Torah on the 23rd.

Do you sit in the sukkah on Simchat Torah?

No. In the Diaspora some eat in the sukkah on Shemini Atzeret, without the blessing, but not on Simchat Torah the day after. In Israel the seven days of the hut end at Hoshana Rabbah.

What are hakafot shniyot?

Public dancing held in Israel once the festival there is over, in squares and halls, often with a band. It began as a way of joining the communities abroad, where Simchat Torah is only beginning that same evening.