When we dance, we stamp our feet on the earth in order to ascend to heaven. Again and again, the dancer kicks the floor of the world, because he does not want to remain there.
He wants to rise an inch, half an inch, whatever. Simcha can be felt quietly and calmly, whereas sasson bursts forth, storms out, rises up from the depths of the earth. Sasson is the tool with which the lowly man refines himself until he rises upward. There are outer shells that obstruct, iron rings that surround and strangle the very joy of the soul itself.
When this idea is somehow preserved, when it is awakened even if ever so slightly, there is nothing that can prevent the joy. From among the waves that want to break and to drown, from beneath the lower waters that no longer wish to ascend, a single voice is heard, the voice of the waters themselves, the voice of their inner essence which is beyond any descent the voice of the yearning of the lower waters to rise.
Within everything, within all of reality, be it what it may, both high and low, good and bad, there is this joy — the joy in the ability to ascend. For this, people join hands and stamp the earth to order to ascend. Ascending is difficult; it is hard to climb, it is impossible to reach the heavens; one rises and keeps falling, sliding back. But this dance, the very dance, cannot be taken away from us.
Copyright , Aleph Society, Inc. All rights reserved. Every sacrifice brought in the Temple was accompanied by a flour offering and the pouring of a prescribed measure of wine on the altar. During the seven days of the Festival of Sukkot a libation of water was added to that of wine together with each of the daily morning offerings.
This water libation is not explicitly mentioned in Torah but it is a law revealed to Moshe on Sinai to which the Sages have found allusions in the Torah. The focus of this rejoicing was the ceremony surrounding the commandment to pour water on the altar — the water libation. Originally performed at the Temple every morning during the Sukkot holiday, water was drawn in a golden container from the pools of Siloam in Jerusalem.
A sacrifice was brought, followed by prayers and then another sacrifice. The pelted priest had demonstrated his alliance with the Sadducees , who took a literal interpretation of Torah and followed only what was specifically in Torah.
Explained as an oral instruction given to Moses at Sinai, this water rite was not mentioned in The Five Books [Torah]. The deliriously happy celebration connected with the water drawing developed when the Pharisees who believed in the Oral Tradition and interpretation of Torah and gave us the rabbinic Judaism we know today triumphed over them in the first century.
We do not imagine our distinguished sages as acrobats and tumblers, but they were often agile physically as well as mentally: Rabbi Simon ben Gamaliel juggled eight lighted torches and raised himself into a handstand on two fingers, a gymnastic feat no one else could master.
Others juggled eight knives, eight glasses of wine, or eight eggs before leaders and dignitaries.
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