Simchat Torah: Difference between revisions

Holocaust survivor [[Elie Wiesel]] said:<blockquote>The [[Vilna Gaon|Gaon of Vilna]] said that ''ve-samachta be-chagekha'' (You shall rejoice in your festival; [[Deuteronomy]] 16:14) is the most difficult commandment in the [[Torah]]. I could never understand this puzzling remark. Only during the war did I understand. Those Jews who, in the course of their journey to the end of hope, managed to dance on Simhat Torah, those Jews who studied [[Talmud]] by heart while carrying stones on their back, those Jews who went on whispering ''Zemirot shel Shabbat'' (Hymns of Sabbath) while performing hard labor . . . ''ve-samachta be-chagekha'' was one commandment that was impossible to observe—yet they observed it.<ref>[[Elie Wiesel]], “On Man's Prayer,” ''Rabbi [[Joseph Lookstein|Joseph H. Lookstein]] Memorial Volume'', ed. Leo Landman ([[KTAV Publishing House]], 1980): 366.</ref></blockquote>