This Shabbat we celebrate the two days of Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah (in Israel, only one day). Since they are a major holiday (yom tov), most forms of work are prohibited. The first day, Shemini Atzeret (beginning before sundown on Oct. 6), features the prayer for rain, officially commemorating the start of the Mediterranean (i.e., Israeli) rainy season, and the Yizkor prayer (supplicating Gd to remember the souls of the departed). The highlight of the second day, Simchat Torah (beginning at nightfall Oct 7) is the hakafot, held on both the eve and the morning of Simchat Torah, in which we march and dance with the Torah scrolls around the reading table in the synagogue. (In many synagogues, hakafot are conducted also on the eve of Shemini Atzeret.)

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Chabad.org

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On Simchat Torah morning, we read from three Torah scrolls (if the synagogue has three scrolls). The first scroll is used to read the final portion of the Torah, Vezot Haberachah; the second is used for the first portion of Bereishit, Genesis; and the verses describing the sacrifices of the day are read from the final Torah. The person called up for the final aliyah of the Torah is known as the chattan Torah (“Torah groom”) and the person called for the opening verses of the Torah is called chattan Bereishit (“Genesis Groom”).

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The globetrotting Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela (12th century) records that in the city of Cairo, Egypt, there were some Jews who followed the uncommon practice of reading a much smaller Parshah each week, finishing the Torah every three years. So what did they do on Simchat Torah if they were not finishing the Torah? Very simple. They had a longstanding custom to join together with their fellow Jews, who were completing the Torah on that day, for a joint prayer service.

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Simchat Torah is the grand finale of a season that began with the solemn repentance of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and then transitioned into the joy of Sukkot and Simchat Torah. This is our final party with Gd before we enter the year ahead, supercharge and inspired by the holiday. In Brooklyn, New York, the Rebbe’s Simchat Torah celebration would begin late at night and continue into the wee hours of the morning. The thousands of celebrants from all over the world were traditionally joined by Israeli diplomats who were granted the privilege of speaking with the Rebbe for a few moments during proceedings.Between 1954 and 1963, the Rebbe would teach a new niggun (Chasidic melody) every year following the night’s dancing and singing.

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From an article by Rabbi Menachim Posner

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The times in which our generation lives are not ordinary times. We dwell on the interface between two worlds —a world as it was and a world as it is meant to be. Everything is in place, all the infrastructure to bind the world together as one, the technology by which all of humanity can share deep wisdom, all that is needed so that the secret of oneness can be grasped within the human mind. The stage is set. All that’s left is for us to open our eyes. 

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From the wisdom of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, of righteous memory; words and condensation by Rabbi Tzvi Freeman.

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If we shall now already rejoice in the Messianic redemption, with absolute faith that Gd will speedily send us Moshiach, this joy in itself will (as it were) “compel” our Father in Heaven to fulfill His children’s fervent wish and speedily redeem us! Needless to say, this is not a case of an illegitimate “forcing” the advent of the “end of days.” We speak simply of serving Gd with extraordinary joy. Our present rejoicing in the Messianic redemption will effect a reciprocal fulfillment of the Messianic prophecy that “The redeemed of Gd shall return, they shall come unto Zion with singing, and ever-lasting joy shall be upon their heads. They shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away” (Isaiah 35:10).

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From an article by Rabbi J. Immanuel Schochet

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It was the fall of 1944 at Auschwitz, and Hungarian Jews—the last nationality to be transported to the camp—had arrived in massive numbers. The furnaces worked overtime as the inmates were sped to their inexorable fate. Everything had happened so fast: being crammed into the cattle cars that had disgorged them at Auschwitz; the quick, merciless dismemberment of families as spouses, children, parents and siblings were torn apart from one another during the selections; being dispassionately stripped of the clothing and personal belongings that made them human, and the freezing-cold showers and assembly-line delousing that had followed. In the course of only minutes, the new inmates had lost everything they owned, everything they loved. Already, some were engulfed by the horror, so studded by their sudden plunge into hell, so mummified into Muselmann (the walking dead), that they could barely remember their own names, let alone the religious holidays. But there were those remnants, those few who still cared about observing the Jewish holidays; among them were fifty religious boys who had just been selected for the gas chamber and were now being herded into a bathhouse, ostensibly to take “showers.”  It was late enough in concentration camp history that they boys knew the truth. Gas would pour through the pipes, not water. But these spiritual heroes made a conscious decision not to give in to them, choosing defiance instead.

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Amid the tumult in the bathhouse, one boy sprang up and shouted: "Brothers! Today is the holiday of Simchat Torah, when the Jewish world rejoices, having concluded the reading of the Torah over the past year, followed directly with the commencement of the new cycle of the Torah reading. During our short lives, we have tried to uphold the Torah to the best of our ability, and now we have one last chance to do so. Before we die, let us celebrate Simchat Torah one last time. “We do not possess anything anymore,”  the boy continued. “We have nothing. We do not have clothes to cover us, nor a sefer Torah (Torah scroll) with which to dance. So let us dance with Gd Himself—who is surely here among us—before we return our souls to Him.”

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Since it had first been erected and used, the gas chambers had absorbed a cacophony of human sounds—screams, cries, moans, benedictions—that would forever reside within its cold earthen stone walls. But never before had its rafters trembled with the pure, sweet strains of fifty young voices raised in fervent song, never before had its concrete floor shaken under the pounding of fifty pairs of feet stamping in unbridled joy. The boys pierced the heavens with their song: “Ashreinu mah tov chelkeinu u’mah nayim goraleinu umah yafah yerushateinu…” (How fortunate are we and how wonderful is our portion and how beautiful is our heritage.) One scowling Nazi guard asked his comrade “What is going on in there. Why hasn’t the gas been turned on yet? “ Another guard said in disbelief, “It sounds like they’re singing…and dancing. Are they crazy?”; An officer commanded “Go find out what’s causing the delay and get the commandant.” Summoned to the doors of the gas chamber, the commandant listened with growing fury to the incongruous revelry inside. He flung open the gas chamber doors and pulled one boy toward him. “You!” he shouted. “Tell me why you are singing and dancing now.” 

“Because leaving a world where Nazi beasts reign is cause for celebration,” the boy sneered. “And because we are overjoyed at the prospect of reuniting with our beloved parents, whom you murdered so viciously. “The commandant became enraged at the boy’s contemptuous words. “I’ll teach you a lesson,” he screamed as the boys continued to dance and sing, heedless of his Presence. “You thought that the gas chamber would be your last stop. You’ll find out otherwise. I will torture each one of you with unbearable suffering.” The commandant ordered the guards to remove the boys from the gas chamber and place them in a holding block overnight. He planned to begin the torture sessions the following day. 

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But the next morning, his plans again went awry. A high-ranking Nazi officer had traveled to Auschwitz to round up slave labor for a work camp that lacked sufficient help. As he strode through the camp looking for prospects, the Nazi officer just happened to pass by the barracks in which the fifty religious boys had been temporarily housed. Their vitality undiminished by their overnight stay, the boys still radiated strength and good health. “Excellent,” the Nazi officer smiled in satisfaction. “Exactly the type of boys I need.” The Nazi officer pulled rank on the camp commandant, who revealed nothing about his original plans for the boys’ fate. He stood silently as the Nazi officer ordered the boys—and several hundred other inmates—to board the trucks that rolled out of Auschwitz into safer climes. Some say that the boys left the grounds singing. Postscript: Survivors of Auschwitz report that all fifty boys survived the war.

From an article by Yitta Halberstam and Judith Leventhal

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