Dancing at a distance? Will people hold Torah scrolls for the dancing, and pass them one to the other? the normal big kiddush or something smaller with pre-apportioned portions or nothing at all? will people go to shul? will we have short davenings instead of services until 2pm? will everyone get an aliya? big productions of chosson torah and chosson breishis? with smaller minyanim, even with everyone getting an aliya it should go quicker than in a shul with a full crowd like every year.
I dont know what it will look like. It might just look like a nearly normal regular yomtov davening if things are scaled back and cut out. I guess we will wait and see, but Sichas Torah is really the one day that davening is very different than the davening of all other yomim tovim. The other Yomim Tovim are all just regular davening, with different tunes, additional piyutim, and all that but it is more or less pretty similar. Simchas Torah is very different. I wonder how it will feel and be experienced when cut down significantly.
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I used to daven at a Simchat Torah minyan that was almost indistinguishable from a regular chag. The chazan said the entire Ata Hareta and held the Torah as he walked around the bimah, one time for each hakafah, enough time for him to say each "Ana Hashem." The parsha was read once, five aliyot, chatan Torah, chatan Bereishit, and from maftir you're basically back to an entirely regular chag tefillah. (In Israel, you have Yizkor and Geshem.) I wish that was an option.
ReplyDeleteIn a regular year I daven at the early minyan on Simchat Torah, we do Hakafot in about 10 minutes, and give everyone an Aliya - so Simchat Torah is not significantly longer than a regular chag. Minyan is very popular, we get a bigger crowd on Simchat Torah than we do on Yom Kippur (Turns out that most people over the age of 15 get very tired of Simchat Torah)
ReplyDeleteThis year, our parking lot minyan will only have one Sefer Torah, which will only be handled by one person who will walk around the Shulchhan 7 times, saying "Ana Hashem...".
Between each Hakafa we may sing a short song, each person standing in his place.
As we are only 20 people, the ALiyot won't take too long.
The longest part of davening will be rolling from Vzot Habracha to Berashit and then back to Pinchas.
I grew up in a shul with one Torah. Yoh get used to it. If only you could read Pinchas before Bereshit...
DeleteWith 20 people you can give seven aliyot (it's Shabbat this year, so you need to add one or two), two chatanim, maftir, hannah, and gelila, and if eight people agree to go without, you only have to read once.