Simchas Torah
A simple Yid's answer for why he danced so strongly on Simchas Torah, despite not learning at all, reveals what the day is really celebrating.
Part of Simchat Torah
Tells over the story of a simple Yid who danced with unusual strength at hakafot, and who, when asked whether his enthusiasm reflected great learning, answered that he was celebrating because his fellow Yidden were learning Torah — just as one dances at a brother's wedding. Draws out that this is precisely the point: Simchas Torah celebrates every Yid's connection to the etzem of Torah, beyond and prior to actual learning, which is why we dance with the sefer Torah rather than open it to learn.
Audio Transcript
A vort from the Rebbe concerning hakafot of Simchat Torah. The Rebbe told over that once somebody saw an am ha'aretz, a simple Yid, dancing very strongly by hakafot on Simchat Torah. I don't remember if he said it was the Berditchever that saw it or maybe somebody else that saw him. So he walked over to him and he said, \"The way you're dancing on Simchat Torah with the Torah shows that you're a big talmid chacham, but it doesn't look like it. Doesn't look like you're that big talmid chacham. So maybe you're not such a big talmid chacham, maybe you just not, but you learned quite a few a lot of Torah.\" So he said, \"No, I don't learn anything.\" Said, \"Maybe you don't learn deep things, maybe you learn simple things.\" He said, \"No, I don't do that either.\" Finally, he came to a point where he said, \"I don't learn anything.\" So he asked him, \"So why are you dancing so strongly with the Torah?\" And he answered, \"And if a brother gets married, you don't dance? So others are learning Torah, so my brothers, other Yidden are learning Torah, that's why I'm dancing.\"
And the Rebbe said he was answered that this is the outlook of an am ha'aretz, because Simchat Torah, it's not because the person who learned and knows Torah, that's the one that's happy. Simchat Torah is a time when we connect to the עצם of the Torah, to the essence of the Torah, which is beyond the learning itself. Every Yid has a connection to the עצם of the Torah. So it's not a brother's a chasan, a brother's a simcha, that's his own simcha, because he is connected to תורה בעצם. Like it says in Zohar that the minhag is that we dance with the Torah, and we put the Torah on the Torah the כתר, the crown, so it's the crown of Torah, it's not the לימוד of Torah. And the best proof is that we don't open the Torah and learn Torah, because it would seem that when it comes to Simchat Torah and we celebrate Torah, the minhag should be that everyone has to learn a certain amount of Torah. B'foal, we dance with the Torah. It is because it's a day that we connect to the עצם of Torah, which comes out b'foal into the learning, but the connection is not only because of the learning, the connection is to the עצם of Torah, which automatically brings a person to learn and is obligated obligates a person to learn, etc., etc. But the celebration is celebration of the עצם תורה that the Eibershter gave us.