Simchas Torah

We youngsters used to look forward to Simkhes toyre. Jews read portions of the Torah, the Pentateuch, each week. By the time we came to this day of the year, we had finished reading the whole scroll and were ready to start all over again. The annual cycle of Torah reading was complete. It was time to celebrate. We would bring out all the scrolls so everybody could dance and sing with them in a festive procession. The procession of the Torah scrolls is called hakufes. This painting shows the hakufes in the New Study House, der nayer besmedresh. It was hundreds of years old. They only called it new because it was newer than the oldest house of study in our town.