Oak Park Temple Simchat Torah Celebration Service
with MAXWELL STREET KLEZMER BAND

Weather permitting, we will be outdoors in and around our sukkah.


Celebrate with your Oak Park Temple family and dance with our precious Torah scrolls to the joyous sounds of Violin, Clarinet, Keyboard and Bass.

What is Simchat Torah?  Simchat Torah - Joy of the Torah - is the festival marking the day when we finish reading from the end of the Torah scroll and begin reading again from the very beginning.

How do we celebrate?  Music and dancing!  We'll take out all of our Torah scrolls and dance to the amazing music of Maxwell Street Klezmer.  We'll unroll the Torah, chant from the very end...and then immediately chant from the very beginning!  

And after that?  More dancing!  Affy Tapples!!

Why do we do this?  The Torah is the most precious possession of the Jewish people.  We've had it for thousands of years. We study the Torah, chant from it, argue about it, take joy in it, and struggle with it.  On Simchat Torah, we bless the moment of its completion, and celebrate that once more we are starting from the beginning. Our love affair with the Torah never ends.