Dear All, Tagged on to the end of Sukkot/Succos/the Feast of Booths are another two festival Days, Hoshana Rabba & Shemini Atzeret.  Hoshana Rabba is a holiday, but not a full Festival.  Actually, it has few customs & is rather minor.  On teh other hand, Shemini Atzeret is a Festival day.  Its main feature is constant praying for rain for all arid regions & especially for Israel.  This year, it runs from the evening of Mon, 10/20 through the aft of Tues, 10/21. 

Running between the evening of Tues, 10/21 through the aft of Weds, 10/22, Simchat Torah is a much more widely-observed holiday.  On the evening of that day, we read almost the last words of the Torah.  And in the morning we read the final words of Deuteronomy & the beginning of Genesis  (The very last words of Deuteronomy are read together with the beginning of Genesis ("When G-d began to create heaven & earth ...  Amd there was evening and there was morning, a first day..." -- & so forth).  Different congregations read differing amounts of verses -- Conservatives & more traditional Jews read the whole parashah of Genesis (a parashah is generally more than a chapter).  All of the Torahs that a congregation owns are removed from the Ark, & everyone dances & sings.  In many congregations, the Torahs are handed around to anyone who wants to carry one.  As always, we say special blessings on the reading of the Torah, so we say many more on Simchat Torah.  Larger congregations clear it with the local Police Dept to be able to close off the block so as to be able to dance in the streeet.  Children are given flags to wave as they dance. 

Thats a great couple of days there I read several years ago on this when I was still married,I went to the temple and talked with the rabbi about it...

And a good thin isreal is doing some land for peace talks for the arabs and the palistines and along with the jewish people,I heard to give land for peace thing its just in talks now its been in the Newtribune.com today on the man page at least someone is going in for talks...

cindy

Ps. I kind of know what to think on the land for peace thing???

Dear CheapChic, Middle East politics is very complicated, & I don't believe that political discussions belong on this Forum -- apologies!  Yours in Him, Deb