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Ari Fuld on the Holidays

Ari Fuld on Simchat Torah – The Instruction Book for Life

What does Sukkot teach us about where our security really comes from? Why do we immediately move from the sukkah to dancing with the Torah? And what does it mean to say that the Torah is God’s “instruction book for life”?
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Edited and adapted from Ari’s Grill & Torah on Oct. 23, 2016

We spent seven days in the sukkah, coming out of our safe homes to live in a temporary hut and realize that everything is around God.

And now we’re finishing up, and tonight there’s a special holiday called Simchat Torah. We’ll be dancing around the Torahs. We’ll be finishing the Torah this week—all the *Chamisha Chumshei Torah*, all five books—and then starting again with Bereshit, from Genesis.

After we realize that there is nothing beyond God Who keeps us safe, we move on to the next thing: realizing that everything revolves around the Torah.

God gave us the Torah. He gave us an instruction book for life.

We read in Kohelet that there is a time for everything, and now we are having a lot of happiness, dancing tonight and tomorrow, and realizing that without that instruction book for how to live, we really would have no clue how to live our lives the way they are supposed to be lived.

There are animals and there are other beings, and then there are human beings. And yes, we are different. We are spiritual beings. We have to respect all beings in the world, but the point is that human beings are spiritual beings.

And the Torah is the instruction book for life.

It says in the Torah, *“U’vacharta bachaim”*—“Choose life.” God basically said, “Look, let Me give you a book. Let Me show you how to do it.”

Chag sameach. Shalom from Israel.

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