Jewish law and life, rather than being static and only written down in books, is actually a living, evolving creature, where the actual practice of the Jewish people through the ages has had a crucial influence. Simchat Torah is a perfect example of this. In his magnum opus, the scholar Abraham Ya’ari traces the development of the festival from its origins in Babylon to the celebration we recognise today.

One of the more interesting developments concerns the Haftorah. The original prophetic reading for the day was the blessing of Solomon to the people on the occasion of the dedication of the Temple. Indeed, it was this selection that was one of the factors which informed the decision to also read the last section of the Torah on this day, rather than on the last Shabbat of the year. There was a desire to connect the blessings of Moses ‘Vezot Habracha’, at the end of Deuteronomy to the blessings of Solomon in the book of Kings. Thus was born the idea of Simchat Torah.

Yet, in a strange turn of events, this original prophetic reading was displaced. Once the reading the last section of the Torah became entrenched, narrating as it does the death of Moses, people started reading as the Haftorah the first chapter of Joshua which historically directly follows the conclusion of Deuteronomy. This indeed is the almost universal custom today, completely displacing the original reading.

If we think about this more closely it is quite extraordinary. The whole idea of concluding the Torah on this day, creating the festival of Simchat Torah, originated from the Haftorah from the book of Kings. Yet as a consequence of concluding the Torah on that day this was replaced with another Haftorah from Deuteronomy, totally displacing the original reading from which the whole saga began. As we begin another year of Torah readings, this tale serves to emphasise for us the dynamic nature of Jewish law and life.