Editing Simchat Torah (section)

==Symbolism==
==="Feet" of the Torah===
In [[Chabad]] [[Hasidic]] thought, the traditional dancing with the Torah allows the Jew to act as the "feet" of the Torah, taking the Torah where it wishes to go, as feet transport the head. This is considered an act of submission to the will of God as expressed in the dictates of the Torah. It is an act that causes the Jew to inherently and naturally observe the Jewish faith. And just as the head benefits from the mobility of the feet, so does the Torah become exalted by the commitment of the Jew.<ref>Metzger, Alter B. ''Chasidic Perspectives: A Festival Anthology''. Kehot Publication Society. 2002. pp. 120–121.</ref>

===Symbol of Jewish identity===
In the 20th century, Simhat Torah symbolized the public assertion of Jewish identity.<ref>Zenner, Walter P. ''Persistence and Flexibility: Anthropological Perspectives on the American Jewish Experience''. [[SUNY Press]], 1988. p. 85</ref> [[History of the Jews in Russia and the Soviet Union|The Jews of the Soviet Union]], in particular, would celebrate the festival ''en masse'' in the streets of [[Moscow]]. On October 14, 1973, more than 100,000 Jews took part in a post–Simhat Torah rally in New York City on behalf of [[Refusenik (Soviet Union)|refuseniks]] and Soviet Jewry.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sovietjewry.org/gallery_photo.php?photo=9 |title=Soviet Jewry |publisher=Soviet Jewry |date=1973-10-14 |access-date=2013-09-25}}</ref> Dancing in the street with the Torah has become part of the holiday's ritual in various Jewish congregations in the United States as well.

===Rejoicing under adversity===
[[Holocaust]] survivor [[Elie Wiesel]] said:<blockquote>The [[Vilna Gaon|Gaon of Vilna]] said that ''ve-samachta be-chagekha'' (You shall rejoice in your festival; [[Deuteronomy]] 16:14) is the most difficult commandment in the [[Torah]]. I could never understand this puzzling remark. Only during the war did I understand. Those Jews who, in the course of their journey to the end of hope, managed to dance on Simhat Torah, those Jews who studied [[Talmud]] by heart while carrying stones on their back, those Jews who went on whispering ''Zemirot shel Shabbat'' (Hymns of Sabbath) while performing hard labor ... ''ve-samachta be-chagekha'' was one commandment that was impossible to observe—yet they observed it.<ref>[[Elie Wiesel]], "On Man's Prayer," ''Rabbi [[Joseph Lookstein|Joseph H. Lookstein]] Memorial Volume'', ed. Leo Landman ([[KTAV Publishing House]], 1980): 366.</ref></blockquote>