This week is the festival of Simchat Torah, the celebration of completing the last section of Deuteronomy and the beginning of reading the Torah again.

The Torah is divided into weekly portions and a portion is studied each week through the year. This week we celebrate finishing the cycle and beginning again—the last part of Deuteronomy and the first section of Genesis is read during this celebration.

I started reading the Torah last year in early December and had to “catch up” to the current week’s portion (I think they were in the middle of Jacob’s story when I started), and I’ve kept up with the weekly portions since then (though I admit to pretty much skimming some of the really boring bits about how to build the temple and do the sacrifices, from Leviticus).

Now I get to start again from the beginning! Whee!