Simchas Torah
A wordplay on hakafah — meaning not just circling but also buying on credit — traces back to a story of the Rebbe Rashab hesitating before the first hakafah.
Part of Simchat Torah
Presents a teitch quoted from the Frierdiker Rebbe that hakafah, besides meaning to circle the bimah, also means to take merchandise on credit. Traces the idea to a story of the Rebbe Rashab, who, before taking the first Sefer Torah of hakafot in tof-reish-mem-ches, questioned a guest about what a middleman does in business — and drew out the lesson that hakafot mark the point in the year when, after 'purchasing' the merchandise of Elul through Shemini Atzeres, a Yid is ready to take on new credit.
Audio Transcript
Concerning Simchat Torah, hakafot of Simchat Torah, the Rebbe once brought a טייטש that hakafah besides meaning circling, that what we do by hakafot we circle the bimah, hakafah also means credit, when you buy something on credit. And he said that, quoted the Frierdiker Rebbe, that by hakafot it's a time when we're able to take on credit. And what it means is that you pack up all your סחורה, all your merchandise that you have, and now you're able to get credit.
This is basically based on a story of the Rebbe Rashab. In one year, תרמ\"ח, when it came to Simchat Torah by hakafot, they were מכבד the Rebbe Rashab with the first Sefer Torah of the first hakafah, and he said, \"I'm not ready yet.\" And he called over a person called Rav Yaakov Shneor, he was from the family of the Mitteler Rebbe, and he asked him, \"What's a middleman? A middleman in business, what is the job of a middleman?\" So Rav Yaakov answered, \"Middleman is somebody that gives merchandise on credit. He brings the merchandise from the big city, gives it to the small סוחרים, to the small merchants, on credit. And when they pay him for the merchandise, the old merchandise, he gives them new merchandise on credit.\" When he told that to Rebbe Rashab, the Rebbe Rashab said, \"Yes, that's the peshat. We have, we took already the merchandise in Elul, and selichot, and the days of, two days of Rosh Hashanah, עשרת ימי תשובה, Yom Kippur, the four days between Yom Kippur and Sukkot, and Sukkot, and שמחת בית השואבה, and Shemini Atzeret. After that we got all this merchandise, now we're able to go to hakafot to take in credit, which means that this is the time to think of whether we paid up for all the merchandise that we took, that we're able to start now taking on credit.\" So the Rebbe, I don't remember that the Rebbe brought this story, but the vort that the Rebbe quoted from the Frierdiker Rebbe is based on this story, and hakafot means now you're able to start taking on credit, because you're starting to take a cheshbon of what you took and being ready to pay for what you took, and now you're taking new merchandise on credit.