Dear Doves,
 
      Part of the spiritual beauty in Simchat Torah, Rejoicing in the Torah, is rejoicing in the individual who perfectly personified the Torah. By Torah, I mean Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy rather than the traditions of men added to them in writings like Talmud. Messiah/Christ has been the perfectly Torah compliant and obedient person. In His ethical and moral perfection and being without any sin, He is our example of the second Adam. Messiah/Christ perfectly obeyed each of the commandments (mitsvoh) of the 613 given to learn, study, and obey in his earthly life. Commandments (mitsvoh), Covenants, and Mishnahs (good works) are perfectly lived in Him. Rejoicing in the Torah is Rejoicing in Him!
      During the 70th Week of Daniel ahead, the Age of Grace will be over and an Age of Law resumed for The House of Israel with sanctuary and animal sacrifices. The Nations  (the pagans, the Gentiles) will be assessed and judged personally by Messiah/Christ, The Judge, after His Second Coming. How will the Nations be treating the Eternal Covenant made with Avram (Abraham) in this 7 year period? The variables, the components for judgment about status at the beginning of the 1000 Year Reign, shall be the treatment of the Covenant People, the Covenant Land, and Jerusalem. The Eternal Covenant will be vitally important in the next 7 years and beyond.
      Simchat Torah, Tishri 23, will be 10-20 to 21. It concludes for Israel as 10-21 goes to 22, the weekly Sabbath. Simchat Torah will be 2529-30 days from the beginning of Sukkot (The Feast of Tabernacles) in 2018. It will be 2520 days from 10-26-2011 until Yom Kippur in 2018. This would be a curious book ending of the conclusion of the Feasts of the Lord for 2011, the concluding of the final 7 of the 7, with the richly symbolic day of Simchat Torah thus beginning  the final 7 years until Tishri 10, Yom Kippur in 2018, at day 2524-5. It would be a Tabernacles ending leading to a Yom Kippur or Tabernacles beginning in 2018. Simchat Torah is the day of the year when the annual Torah reading cycle begins anew at Genesis 1:1. Israel goes into the Torah again for another year on this date! It places itself and The House of Israel under the authority of the Torah!
      Simchat Torah night was the night of the year, when the Temples were at Jerusalem, for the disposal ceremony of the discarded of the priestly garments. These were burned rather than thrown away. How? They were each tightly would and then used as giant wicks in large bowls of frehly harvested and pressed olive oil. Much of that night the skies above the Temple Mount were brightly lit. One year on Shemini Atzeret, Messiah/Christ made reference to the special and visually impressive ceremony. Remember, the pilgrims would still be there to see it. They dismantled the sukkahs and left for home during the day portion of Simchat Torah. You get a sense of the visual drama of it in a scene from the movie "The Greatest Story Ever Told" directed by George Stevens. Our Redeemer said it well. "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me, will never walk in darkness, but have the light of life."
      Simchat Torah was not commanded in the Torah. What were commanded were days 1-7, and the Yom Tov (like a weekly Sabbath) and concluding sacred convocation on day 8 of Shemini Atzeret, the Last Great Day. But it was only on Simchat Torah (an Isru Chag) meaning "binding of the festival" when the Temples were at Jerusalem, that the pilgrims were released and began to leave Jerusalem to go home. Shemini Atzeret was like a Sabbath, a no work day, and a no travel day. Travel would have been considered work and had strict limitations in interpretation. Significantly, Simchat Torah was the day when the sukkahs were dismantled, as well.  They could not do this on days 1-7 since they were to live in them. Day 8, Shemini Atzeret was a no work day and the final day of sacred convocation for The Spiritual Year. The last days of Sukkot were especially appreciated since it would be a long wait of  6-7 months until First Passover/Unleavened Bread, the first of the 3 Pilgrimage Festivals of Pesach, then Shavuot (Pentecost), then Sukkot. Hanukkah was not a Pilgrimage Festival or a Feast of the Lord.
      If we remain here a few more days, the dismantling of the sukkahs in Israel on 10-21 may have tremendous symbolic spiritual importance. Might it be the Season and The Day when the sukkah life is concluded and dismantled, The Age of Grace is complete, Israel enters Sabbath Rest, The House of Israel in recommitted to the authority of the Torah, We enter fully into His Rest, and the earthly pilgrims of Messiah/Christ are Released to Go HOME and begin to LEAVE to go to The Far Country of Heaven? Will Simchat Torah as it begins or ends for Israel be THE DAY TO GO HOME? Might The Day of The Blessed Hope be so soon? We shall see. "What I say to you I say to all. Watch." Come quickly, Lord...
 
With Love and Shalom,
Jean