Simchat Torah is a holiday that marks the “restart point” of the annual Torah reading cycle. We finish the end of Deuteronomy and start again from the beginning of Genesis. But the Torah is a linear scroll, so the first and last chapters are really far apart – over 100 feet away, on ours! So, we unroll the whole thing, unfurling the Torah in a giant circle around the sanctuary, placing the beginning and the end next to each other. From this vantage, we can see all the quirks of the scroll’s calligraphy. 

See here, the large gaps that tell us we’re starting a new chapter. There, the patterned waves of text that mark the Song of the Sea. Here, the oddly spaced “lo-lo-lo” (do not/do not/do not) of the Ten Commandments. There, the letters that are written extra small or extra-large in every Torah scroll. Scribal traditions, perhaps accidental in origin, that have taken on meaning as they pass from generation to generation. 

When we are creating community, every action takes on meaning. Even small details, if repeated, can become traditions. Casper ter Kuile says that ritual is “intention + attention + repetition.” They don’t have to be religious, or even spiritual. They just have to be purposeful. If you want to add intentionality to your community or day, find something you do repeatedly and give it a little extra intention and attention. This time next autumn, with the scroll of the year unfurled, you may find you’ve created a new tradition.