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Dec. 5 Holidays/Mazel Tov Nov
SUKKOT
In the mid-20th century, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson of the Lubavitch Hasidic dynasty exhorted his followers to observe hakhel in a modern way, focused on the spirit of gathering and on the education of children. Since then, it has become de rigueur in Chabad circles, and the movement says it is hosting more than 500 hakhel gatherings around the world this year—including a reenactment of the ancient rituals at a girls’ school in Montreal and an outing to an amusement park in Connecticut.
Rabbi Ethan Tucker, president and rosh yeshiva of Hadar, an egalitarian yeshiva in New York, says he has noticed more chatter about hakhel among other Jews in recent years. Whether that’s because social media has allowed proponents of the ritual to find each other more easily, or the widening practice of shmita in Israel has led to more awareness, or something else entirely is going on is anyone’s guess, he said.
But he said hakhel’s explicit inclusion of women and children makes it an attractive ritual for many Jews today.
“We live in a cultural moment where people are thinking a tremendous amount about inclusion, and about the ways in which communal institutions can actually draw everyone in,” Tucker says.
“The notion that there’s a biblical and cultural precedent from within the tradition that already stands for that, I think, is very compelling,” he adds.
Most hakhel gatherings are designed to channel the spirit of the commandment and to celebrate the conclusion of the agricultural cycle, including sometimes by discussing environmental issues including how to combat climate change.
But at least one group also planned to carry out the most expansive interpretation of the hakhel commandment. Judaism Unbound, a group that aims to engage “disaffected but hopeful” American Jews, hosted a recitation of the entire Torah—all 52 portions that are read in synagogues throughout the year—during an online event; the group estimated that the reading would take more than 15 hours.
In Jerusalem, there was a hakhel event at the Western Wall plaza on the second day of Sukkot, where three new Torah scrolls were dedicated. Expected to attend were Isaac Herzog, the current president of Israel whose grandfather, then the Ashkenazi chief rabbi, was present at the country’s first hakhel celebration, as well as many prominent rabbis, cantors and singers.
The observance of Simchat Torah, the holiday that marks the completion of the annual Torah reading cycle, is in some ways a tribute to what hakhel recalls. It’s typically celebrated with festive gatherings in which all members of the community engage with Torah scrolls; like hakhel, the holiday is famously child-friendly.
“It’s always fascinating how great ideas and memorable rituals don’t really ever die,” Tucker says. “They’re always ripe for a revival or they take on new forms.”
The founding of Israel in 1948 invigorated the practice of multiple laws specific to the land of the ancient Jews, including the commandment to leave fields fallow every seven years, and renewed attention to hakhel.
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