Radical Innovation and the Future of Jews

If we learn anything from Simhat Torah it should be that the future of the Jewish people depends on our capacity for radical innovation. There are signs that Jewish leaders of our time have some of the creativity and foresight of the ancient sages, who understood the necessity of inventing the holiday of Simhat Torah, but it’s too soon to say whether their innovations will ultimately be as successful in uniting the Jewish people.

Scholars today may dispute which sages originated the yearly celebration of Simhat Torah (was it the sages of the Land of Israel or the sages of Babylonia, and was it in the Amoraic or Geonic period?), but the sources indicate that a radical innovation took place. They added to the end of Succot a full holiday celebrating the completion of the reading of the Torah regardless of whether a community read Torah on a triennial or an annual cycle, and regardless of whether in the Diaspora or in the Land of Israel. Torah-reading, these sages found, was far more unifying than any of the myriad of rituals of Succot.