The centrality of the Torah to the Covenant

Celebrating the Torah

• One of the happiest of all Jewish festivals is Simchat Torah - marks the completion of the yearly cycle of reading the Torah
• Marked by singing and dancing as the Torah scrolls are carried in festive procession around the synagogue

• Jews feel that the importance given to the festival shows how central the Torah is to Judaism - without the Torah, the Covenant with God would lack any real meaning
• It is so important, that thousands of Jews in the past have lived and died by its teachings

The Torah is vitally important as a way that Jews can continue their long history and tradition. This is shown by the following: 

• Jews still read from the same Hebrew Torah text that they have used for over 2,000 years
• Jews have studies and commented on every phrase and word of the Torah
• The last letter of the Torah is a 'lamed' and the first letter is a 'bet' (pronouced 'v')…