Editing Simchat torah (section)

==== Hakafot ====
'''Extended topic – Hakafot, Atah Hareita'''

It is a Jewish custom to circle the Torah reading platform with Torah scrolls on the night and day of Simchat Torah, with joy, songs, and dancing, celebrating in this way the completion of reading the entire Torah. This custom began in Ashkenazi lands hundreds of years ago, and from there spread to Sephardic communities. Rabbi Chaim Vital brought that his teacher the Arizal practiced this custom, and also showed a source for the custom in the Zohar:<blockquote>"And Israel customarily celebrates with it, and it is called Simchat Torah. And they crown the Torah scroll with its crown." — Zohar Part 3, 256b</blockquote>Among our Rebbeim, the Hakafot on Shemini Atzeret were conducted with seriousness compared to the Hakafot of Simchat Torah, where the joy was greater, beyond measure and limitation (although in recent years the Rebbe instituted that already on Shemini Atzeret the Hakafot should be with joy that breaks through all limitations completely, and explained the reason for this).

In Chassidic teachings, the virtue of Hakafot is explained extensively, as a joy that is beyond all limitations in which all Jews unite without distinction, and this joy brings about elevation in Torah study throughout the entire year.

The Rebbe Rashab once asked his father, the Rebbe Maharash: What is the meaning of Hakafot? He answered him: Hakafot means that we plead with the Father - our Father in Heaven with tears of blood, "my tears have been my bread," have mercy and break the yoke of the gentiles from our necks. The gentiles are the body and the animal soul. We dance with the Torah scroll in joy, with an open head and an open heart, but internally, tears of blood flow.