The reason for the special great simchah that we have on Simchat Torah is because on Simchat Torah we finish reading the Torah. We start from Bereishit, and through the year we read the whole Torah, and on Simchat Torah we finish the Torah, and we make a simchah of the גמרה של תורה, when we finish the Torah. And it says in the ספר האשכול, הלכות קריאת פרשיות התורה בהלכות שבת ויום טוב, and the Or Zarua in חלק ב׳ סימן ש״כ, and the Beit Yosef brings it down at the end of סימן תרס״ט, that the מקור for making a special simchah on Simchat Torah is based on the מדרש, שיר השירים רבה פרשה א׳, א׳, where it says concerning Shlomo HaMelech that he made a big simchah, and there the מדרש ends off, אמר רבי אלעזר, רבי אלעזר said, מכאן שעושין סעודה לגמרה של תורה. Here we know that you make a seudah when we finish the Torah. So certainly when we finish reading תורה שבכתב, we finish reading the whole Torah, we make a special simchah. This is the reason why we have the special simchah on Simchat Torah. The way we make the simchah, the way we celebrate the simchah of the גמרה של תורה, of the finishing of the Torah, so the Minhag Yisrael is that we take a Sefer Torah, the way it is, closed up, the way it is, circled around with the gartel, and closed up with the mentele, with the cover, and we take the Sefer Torah, and we make hakafot, we walk around the שולחן הקריאה, the bimah, where we leyned the Torah during the year, and we dance with the Torah. This is the way we celebrate Simchat Torah, or גמרה של תורה, the simchah that we have on finishing the Torah.

Lichorah, it is very hard to understand why this is the way we celebrate Simchat Torah. The whole idea of Torah is a limud, it is learning, it is a sechel, it is something that has to do with the intellectual part of the person. So lichorah, if we want to celebrate the simchah, Simchat Torah, the way it should have been is that we should sit down and learn more Torah. We should learn more Torah בכמות and more Torah באיכות, more Torah in quantity and in quality. And this would bring about in the person the greatest simchah, the greatest joy, because we know that פקודי ה׳ ישרים משמחי לב, that the פקודי ה׳, the commandments of Hashem, the Torah, is משמחי לב, the words of Torah make a person happy. So the more a person learns, the happier he is; the deeper a person learns, the happier he is. So if we want to celebrate the simchah of Torah, it should have been through learning more Torah. Why is it that the way the simchah is that we take the sefer Torah, the way it is closed up, we can't even learn it even if we want to, because it's closed up, and we dance with our feet? Why is it that this is the way we celebrate Simchat Torah? Now, the truth is, on Simchat Torah you also have to sit and learn. A person must learn Torah every day and night. So on Simchat Torah you also must have shiurim kevuyim, you must have set time to learn. But nevertheless, this is just because every day you must learn, not because on Simchat Torah we have a special inyan in learning. The way Simchat Torah is celebrated, the simchah of the Torah, the simchah of the גמרה של תורה, is that we dance with the Torah, the way the Torah is closed up, in a way that we don't even see the words. So why is it that the מנהג ישראל is to celebrate Simchat Torah in such a way?

So the pshat is, because the Zohar says, זוהר חלק ג׳, דף רנ״ו עמוד ב׳, ונוהגין למעבד ישראל עמו חדוה, that the Yidden have a מנהג to make a simchah with the ספר תורה, ואתקריאת שמחת תורה, and this is called Simchat Torah. And then the Zohar continues and says, ומעטרין לספר תורה בכתר דיליה, that you crown the ספר תורה with its crown. Which means that on the day of Simchat Torah, when we celebrate the גמרה של תורה, we don't just celebrate the inyan of learning Torah, but we celebrate the inyan of כתר תורה. Now, what is this כתר תורה, the crown of Torah? This is what we would call the etzem of the Torah, the essence of the Torah. Because we know the Torah that we were given is not only the inyan of understanding of the Torah. The fact that we're able to understand part of the Torah, this is not the whole Torah. And it's self-understood, being that the Torah is חכמתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא, the chochmah of Hashem, the wisdom of Hashem, so it's self-understood that the wisdom of Hashem is beyond our wisdom, beyond our understanding. Our limited, finite minds cannot really grasp the infinite chochmah of Hashem. Especially the way the Rambam says that the chochmah of Hashem is not just that it's His chochmah, like lehavdil by a person, that when a person has a chochmah, you have two inyanim, you have the person and you have his chochmah. But by ה׳, הוא וחכמתו אחד, He and His chochmah are one. So it comes out that really the Torah, which is the chochmah of Hashem, is Hashem Himself. So the fact that we understand the Torah and we grasp some of it with our limited mind is definitely not the whole essence of the Torah. The whole essence of the Torah is really beyond that. And that is what we celebrate celebrate on Simchat Torah. We celebrate the fact that Hashem gave us the Torah, and we have a connection essentially to the Torah, which is beyond the inyan of לימוד התורה, of learning Torah. Because, as we know, when Hashem gave us the Torah, He didn't just give us the Torah as a good sechel, as a good subject, a good intellectual inyan to learn, but He gave us Himself, too. As the Gemara says in Shabbos that the word Anochi is an abbreviation: אנא נפשי כתבית יהבית, the pashut pshat means, I, Myself, wrote it and gave it, but there's a deeper pshat there: אנא נפשי, I Myself, כתבית, wrote Myself in, יהבית, gave Myself over in the Torah. When Hashem gave us the Torah, He gave us Himself. And this is what we would call the Keter Torah, the crown of Torah. This is not the understanding, the הבנה והשגה of the Torah, but this is the essence of the Torah, the essential connection that we have with the Torah. As we say in the berachah: ונתן לנו את תורתו, השם gave us His Torah. And this is said by every Yid, whether he's a big talmid chacham or not such a big talmid chacham, because the etzem of the Torah, the essence of the Torah is given to every single Yid. And this is why we celebrate Simchat Torah not bedavka through sitting down and learning an extra special shiur. We have to learn Torah on Simchat Torah anyway, because it's a day of the year, and every day you must learn Torah. But the way we celebrate the simchah of the Torah is not through sitting down and learning, but through having the Torah closed and dancing with it, showing our connection to the Torah in a way which is beyond hasagah, higher than learning, in a way we can't even sit and learn in the Torah because it's closed, it's wrapped up, but we show that we have our essential connection to the Torah. And therefore, every single Yid is able to dance on Simchat Torah, not bedavka a big talmid chacham. As the famous

story, that once R.' Levi Yitzchak Barditchever saw a Yid dancing very strongly on Simchat Torah with the Torah, and he was a very simple Yid, he was an איש פשוט. He walked over to him and asked him, \"Do you have any shiurim in learning that you're so happy with the Torah?\" So he said, \"No, I don't have a shiur in Gemara, I don't have a shiur in Mishnayot, and I don't have a shiur in Chumash Rashi,\" because he was very simple, he couldn't learn anything. So he asked him, \"So why are you dancing?\" And he said, \"And if my brother gets married, I don't dance?\" And the Barditchever said to him, \"It is not true. It's not your brother's wedding, it's your own wedding!\" Because the simchah of Simchat Torah is not a simchah that is connected to the understanding of the Torah, but it is the simchah for the fact that we have the עצם התורה, the essence of the Torah, which is the kedushah of the Torah, which is the fact that Hashem is in the Torah, and all the Yidden have this kedushah of the Torah. Even if a person can't learn, nevertheless, he is connected to the Torah. And therefore, even an am haaretz, when he gets an aliyah to the Torah, he still makes the same ברכת התורה and he says אשר בחר בנו מכל העמים ונתן לנו את תורתו. He also says that Hashem gave him the Torah. Why? Because even though he can't learn the Torah, but nevertheless, he has a connection to the etzem of the Torah. And this is a feeling that a person is always supposed to have before he starts learning. When a person sits down to learn Torah, he's supposed to remember that as much as he's going to understand, that is just a tipah min hayam we could say, like a drop in the bucket of what the Torah really is. Really, the Torah is chochmato shel HaKadosh Baruch Hu beyond his understanding. Really the Torah has the kedushah, the Torah has Hashem in it. When a person has this in his mind before he sits down to learn, then his learning is in a different madregah, is a completely different way.

And this is connected to the fact that we lain Parshat Vezot HaBerachah on Simchat Torah, and one of the pesukim that we say there is the פסוק תורה צוה לנו משה מורשה קהלת יעקב, that the Torah commanded us Moshe as a yerushah, as an inheritance to the community of Yaakov. And the Gemara says in סוכה דף מ״ב עמוד א׳, that is brought down lehalachah, that a katan, a child, when he starts speaking, אביו מלמדו תורה, his father is supposed to start teaching him Torah. And the Gemara says, which is the first pasuk that he is supposed to teach him? It's the פסוק תורה צוה לנו משה. This, the Torah that Moshe commanded us, is a yerushah to קהלת יעקב, to the community of Yaakov. Now, lichorah, it's not understood, why should we teach a child this pasuk as the first thing he learns in Torah? This pasuk speaks about the Torah the way it was given to us by Moshe Rabbeinu. When Moshe brought down the Torah, he gave us the whole Torah. This includes everything. This even includes כל מה שתלמיד ותיק עתיד לחדש, anything a talmid, as long as he's a proper talmid, will be mechadesh in all later generations, הכל ניתן למשה מסיני, everything was given to Moshe Rabbeinu. As we understand this from the Gemara in מגילה דף י״ט עמוד ב׳, and it says in ירושלמי פאה פרק ב׳ הלכה ד׳, brought down in the midrashim, in Shemot Rabbah in the beginning of פרשה מ״ז, in Vayikra Rabbah at the beginning of פרשה כ״ב, in קהלת רבה פרשה א׳, in many, many places. So it comes out that this pasuk speaks about the whole Torah. And when we say that Moshe gave us the whole Torah, this includes even the hidden part of the Torah. Because, as we know, the whole Torah is made up of peshat, remez, derush, sod. So, even the sod, the hidden part of the Torah, was also also given by Moshe Rabbeinu. And even the Torah that we're going to learn from Mashiach was also given at that time. The only thing is it wasn't revealed yet, but when Mashiach will reveal it, not chas veshalom the peshat that Mashiach will give us a new Torah, it is all included in the Torah that was given by Matan Torah from Hashem to Moshe, and Moshe gave it down to all the Yidden. So therefore we understand that as much as we learned, this is only a drop of what really is in the Torah. So according to that, how come when we teach a child the beginning when he starts off, we teach him the inyan of Torah, we teach him this pasuk, telling him, so to speak, concerning the depth of Torah, that the Torah was given to us by Moshe Rabbeinu, which includes everything, which includes the deepest inyanim in Torah? But the peshat is that this pasuk tells us something else. This pasuk tells us that תורה צוה לנו משה, that Moshe gave us the Torah, he gave us the etzem of the Torah, the essence of the Torah, which is even beyond our understanding. And this is something that doesn't have to do with the brain of the person. This has to do with the neshamah of the person. And this is connected to the neshamah of every single Yidden, whether he is an adult or he is a small child. This concept that we can't give a child things which are beyond his understanding is only when we talk about things of understanding. But when we're talking about the Torah, so the essence of the Torah is completely higher than understanding. And the essence of the Torah is given to every single Yid, because concerning the essence of the Torah, everyone is equal. Because this difference between a child and adult is only concerning seichel. So that would only be concerning that part of Torah which is connected to seichel. So the adult has a stronger connection because he understands it better, but the child doesn't have such a strong connection because his seichel is not that strong. But when we're talking about the Torah of Hashem, about חכמתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא, the wisdom of Hashem, which is beyond understanding, so that is connected to an adult the same as to a child, and to a child the same as to an adult. And that's why we tell the child that תורה צוה לנו משה, the Torah that Moshe gave us, this is the essence of the Torah, and this is מורשה קהלת יעקב. It's like a yerushah. What is the concept of a yerushah of inheritance? The din by yerushah is, as the Mishnah says in נדה פרק ה׳ משנה ג׳, that even if he is תינוק בן יום אחד, even if he's a child just one day old, נוחל, ער ירשנט. If he is the yoresh, if he is the one that's supposed to inherit, it makes no difference how old he is. He inherits everything from the one he gets from. If he is a son of his father, and his father dies, he inherits from his father even if he is a small baby. It doesn't depend on the person's madregah in order to be a yoresh. As long as he is a יורש, ער ירשנט. And the din by yerushah is that the yoresh, the one that yarshent, the one that inherits, is mamash in the place of the morish, in the place of the one that made him inherit. As the pasuk says, תחת אבותיך יהיו בניך, and in place of your parents will be your children. They are mamash in the place of the morish. As it's understood from the Gemara in Bava Batra דף קנ״ט עמוד א׳, and in Zevachim דף ד׳ עמוד ב׳, and especially the way it's explained in the She'elot uTeshuvot Tzafnat Paneach Maharagatshover חלק א׳ סימן קי״ח, that the yoresh is mamash in the place of the morish. And this is what we're telling the child, that the Torah was commanded by Moshe Rabbeinu, and this was the etzem of the Torah, and this is a מורשה, ירושה, קהלת יעקב to all the Yidden. And since it's a yerushah, it makes no difference how old the child is. Even if the child is a small child, he still yarshent the same way as an adult. Concerning yerushah, there is no difference between a child and adult, because this is an ענין עצמי, an essential thing, not something which depends on sechel. Now, one might ask: let's say this is true, but why do we have to tell this to the child? Why don't we wait till the child grows up and then we'll explain this to him? But the answer is that this is very important before a person starts learning. This fact, that the Torah has Hashem in it, and there is the kedushah of Torah, and הוא וחכמתו אחד, השם and His chochmah are one, and therefore it's connected to every Yid inside his neshamah, this is the yesod, the foundation of the whole Torah. This is not a separate thing from learning, that you have to learn Torah, and in addition to that there is something else that you have to remember, that this is the chochmah of Hashem and there is the etzem of the Torah which is connected to Hashem and connected to every single Yid. This is something that goes together with the learning Torah, and even before you start learning Torah. The approach to the learning Torah has to be with this idea in mind. And therefore, even before you start teaching a child the hasagah, the haskalah, the understanding of the Torah, the wisdom of the Torah, you have to tell the child that he should know before he starts, that this is the Torah of Hashem. And if you will not teach the child from when he is small this concept, later on it'll be harder to put into his mind. Because after he will understand the Torah already, then you'll start telling him that this sechel that you understand is really the chochmah of Hashem and beyond sechel, it'll be hard for him to grasp, because after all, he understands it with his sechel, and as far as he's concerned, he grasped it with his sechel, so how can you tell him that this is beyond sechel? But if you teach the child when he is small that this is really what the Torah is, so then, later when he starts starts learning, he will learn the Torah with this approach, and he will have this in mind throughout the whole learning. Especially the way the pasuk says concerning a child, חנוך לנער על פי דרכו, גם כי יזקין לא יסור ממנה, and if you teach a child properly when he is small, then even when he is older, he will not turn away from it. The same is with this. If you want the child when he grows up to have in mind constantly during the learning Torah, at the time when he understands Torah, to realize that this is the Torah of Hashem, there is this etzem of the Torah which is beyond understanding, and the part that we understand is only a little bit of it that Hashem did us a favor, made us understand a little bit in order for us to have a deeper connection to it, we should feel the connection. But this is only a second level in the Torah. The main part of the Torah is the etzem of the Torah. So if you want a child to have that in mind the whole time, you have to teach it to him just when he starts speaking, right in the beginning. And this is the reason why on Simchat Torah, when we really celebrate the simchah of גמרה של תורה, we really stress the point that we are connected to the תורה בעצם, with the etzem of the Torah, not so much with the understanding. Because if our connection to the Torah is through our understanding, the connection is limited to the understanding. If he understands a little bit, his connection is a little bit. If he understands more, connection is stronger. And even the person who understands the most, it is still limited to the understanding of a person, which is in itself a limited thing. Our connection is an unlimited connection, and that is to the etzem of the Torah, which the Zohar would call the כתר תורה, the crown of Torah. And that's why we dance with the Torah the way the Torah is closed, and the Torah is wrapped around with the mantle as to show that we are connected to the etzem of the Torah. On the other hand, we have to remember that Hashem wants us to take the Torah the way it is essentially, and to learn it, and to understand it, and to grasp it with our sechel. And therefore, all year round we have to sit and learn Torah, and that's the way we fulfill Hashem's command in connecting ourselves to the etzem of the תורה בגילוי, in a revealed way. And that is the reason why when we dance with the Torah, we dance around the bimah that we read the Torah on, because reading of the Torah really is learning Torah. To show that we takeh dance with the Torah the way it's closed because we show our connection to the כתר תורה, to the etzem of the Torah, to the fact that the Torah has Hashem within him, it is the חכמתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא, איהו וחכמתיה חד. But we dance around the שולחן הקריאה, the bimah on which we read the Torah on, to show that from this connection that we have to the etzem of the Torah, which has Hashem in it, which means a connection of the etzem of the neshamah to the etzem of the Torah, we must sit and learn Torah and grasp the Torah with our sechel. And that's why we dance around the שולחן הקריאה, the place where we read the Torah and learn the Torah, to show that from this great simchah, we will take a special resolution to learn more Torah, and memeila, since לימוד מביא לידי מעשה, we will do more mitzvot throughout the year.