The Sukkot and Shemini Atzeret Torah readings are from Leviticus 22-23, Numbers 29, and Deuteronomy 14-16. These readings detail the laws of the moadim or "
appointed times" on the Jewish calendar for festive celebration of our bond with G-d; including the mitzvot of dwelling in the
sukkah (branch-covered hut) and taking the "
Four Kinds" on the festival of Sukkot; the
offerings brought in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem on Sukkot, and the obligation to journey to the Holy Temple to "to see and be seen before the face of G-d" on the three annual
pilgrimage festivals -- Passover, Shavuot and
Sukkot.
On
Simchat Torah ("Rejoicing of the Torah") we conclude, and begin anew, the
annual Torah-reading cycle. First we read the Torah section of Vezot Haberachah, which recounts the blessings that Moses gave to each of the twelve tribes of Israel before his death. Echoing
Jacob's blessings to his twelve sons five generations earlier, Moses assigns and empowers each tribe with its
individual role within the
community of Israel.
Vezot Haberachah then relates how Moses ascended Mount Nebo from whose summit he
saw the Promised Land. "And Moses the servant of G-d died there in the Land of Moab by the mouth of G-d... and no man knows his burial place to this day." The Torah concludes by attesting that "There arose not a prophet since in Israel like
Moses, whom G-d knew face to face... and in all the mighty hand and the great
awesome things which Moses did before the eyes of all Israel."
Immediately after concluding the Torah, we
begin it anew by reading the first chapter of Genesis (the beginning of next
Shabbat's Torah reading) describing G-d's creation of the world in
six days and His ceasing work on the seventh--which He sanctified and blessed as a day of
rest.
