Simchat Torah Revue

Description

Here’s a novel way to celebrate Simchat Torah, a really upbeat and exciting way to observe the popular ritual of completing and restarting our annual Torah reading cycle.

When it comes time to read Torah, use this song (broken into seven segments, which are pasted down below) to punctuate readings from across the Five Books. Between the verses of the song and your readings (as few or as many as you like), you and your community will review the entire content of the Torah.

You can do any of the following:

• Play the full recordings for folks to hear or, even better, provide lyrics so everyone can sing along!
• Play the instrumental-only recordings and sing it yourselves (solo, duet, choir and/or everybody).
• Or do it all yourselves, playing as many or as few of the instrumental parts to accompany your singing.
• We’ve included a track with only guitar accompaniment to demonstrate that it can be done this way too. This recording happens to be in a higher key, which you’re welcome to request if that fits your needs.
• We also have a version of the song that is not broken into segments. If you’d like to present it “whole cloth,” we’ve got what you need!

While you may certainly present the music any way you like, we’ve had parts one through six each precede a reading (or readings) from the Torah, with part seven following your final reading. Then, depending on your community’s custom, you may want to read the last verses of Deuteronomy followed by the first verses of Genesis. We provide a detailed outline to help you understand how you might use Simchat Torah Revue in your own community.

There’s one final recording that’s instrumental only, which you can use to roll up the Torah. Or play the instrumental yourselves; we have those parts for you as well!

We have three packets of music for you. And since that cost only as little or as much as you want to donate to The Jonah Maccabee Foundation, take ’em all if you like! They include:

• First, choose if you want the song with “No Breaks” (all 7 sections sung in one musical presentation) or “Segments” (Torah readings placed in between each section of the song)
• Piano-Vocal package (includes piano accompaniment, piano-vocal score, vocal score, chord sheet, lyric sheet, and suggestions for “How to Use in Worship”)
• Ensemble package (includes conductor’s score, all instrumental parts, piano accompaniment, piano-vocal score, vocal score, chord sheet, lyric sheet, and suggestions for “How to Use in Worship”)
• Guitar-Songleader package (includes vocal lead sheet, chord sheet, lyric sheet, and suggestions for “How to Use in Worship”)

STR Segments

Here’s what the song sounds like in its seven parts (plus an instrumental eighth part for rolling up the Torah) …

Part One …

Part Two …

Part Three …

Part Four …

Part Five …

Part Six …

Part Seven …

Part Eight …

We very much hope you enjoy adding this upbeat musical journey to your Simchat Torah celebration.

Ellen and Billy Dreskin

lyrics

I.

Neighbors and friends, before you unrolled,
The Jews’ glorious story all told in a scroll.
Each letter is perfect. You won’t find mistakes.
Look closely, my friends, and of the Torah we will partake.

“In the beginning,” the Torah will start.
A bet oversized is the story’s first mark.
It’s closed on the backside, the bottom, the top.
Don’t think, “What’s before it?”
The bet signals, “Stop.”

II.

Hafoch ba.
You can turn it and turn it again and again.
Unroll the Torah.
There is so much t o learn
From the lives that our ancestors lived way back when.

On day one, two, three, four, five, day six, then day seven,
Adonai, the Creator, takes a day off in heaven.
Meanwhile below, the population’s growing.
Adam and Eve meet a snake.
Human weakness is showing.

Children are born. There’s Cain and there is Abel.
They’ve got lots of big problems:
A “murderer” Cain is labeled.
In fact, a generation of bad eggs we find.
Except for Noah, his fam’ly, and some animals,
The whole world’s left behind.

A forty day flood. Zap! The world is missing.
But God has a plan so no booing or hissing.
Never again will all people die.
And to prove it, a rainbow is put in the sky.

Our forefathers and mothers now arrive on the scene.
Abraham and Sarah and their kids with all their dreams.
This fam’ly has a tie with our God that won’t end,
Because they’re told that from their children all the Jews will descend.
Genesis tells us of their lives and their times.
People with problems like yours and like mine.

III.

Hafoch ba.
You can turn it and turn it again and again.
Unroll the Torah.
There is so much to learn
From the lives that our ancestors lived way back when.

A space in the Scripture. A new book: Sh’mot!
The story of Moses in his little lifeboat.
The greatest of leaders, whose story is told
In this book we call Exodus, a tale very bold.

From slav’ry to freedom our people do flee.
Escaping through water, the split of a sea.
With cheering and dancing, for slav’ry is gone,
Miriam leads the people in her famous Red Sea song.

IV.

They camp in the desert before their big shlep.
In search of a Promised Land the Israelites will trek.
But first to Mount Sinai where awaiting God’s word,
The people cry to Aaron, “This is absurd!
This god must want glory, so let’s build us an idol!”
Hence, the Golden Calf story which you learned as a child.

Hafoch ba.
You can turn it and turn it again and again.
Unroll the Torah.
There is so much to learn
From the lives that our ancestors lived way back when.

Now you know what happened then. The Ten Commandments were received.
One, two, three, on up to ten. Boy, Moses was relieved!
An ark was built in which the Jews would keep their Torah covered.
Above it was the place where God’s cloud or fire would hover.

V.

On to Leviticus, to Vayikra, we go.
Our devotion to God, through sacrifice we show.
A pigeon, or a lamb, or a bull (or two).
Says the Priest on the altar, “God, this bird’s for you!”

But it’s holiness, we’re told, that gives life its meaning.
“Love neighbor like self” is the Torah’s true leaning.
Now welcome to Numbers; the journey isn’t done.
Forty years of wand’ring is not too much fun.

The people are tired, they’re kvetchy, they’re grumbling.
They want a home-cooked meal, their stomachs are rumbling.
“Moses,” they yell. “Where’s the beef? We want some meat!
We’re tired of having nothing but manna to eat!”

VI.

Moses picks some elders to help lead the crew.
With six hundred thousand people, I’d get helpers. Wouldn’t you?
Now it’s water that they’re after and they want it right now!
So with a stick, an angry Moses hits the rock. Pow! Pow!

This he will pay for. To the land he’ll not go.
From afar, he may see it. But its ground he’ll never know.
In the book of Deuteronomy, the Torah’s last book,
He climbs up a mountain to get a good look.

And all the tribes send delegates to enter the land.
Their report looks good. The milk and honey’s at hand!
But since Moses can’t go ‘cause he was thrown out of the game,
He selects a new leader. Joshua is his name.

VII.

Hafoch ba.
You can turn it and turn it again and again.
Unroll the Torah.
There is so much to learn
From the lives that our ancestors lived way back when.

The laws are then repeated. The people all listen.
Once again, there’s no booin’ or hissin’.
Moses, his lengthy life nearing its end,
His thoughts in a poem to the people he sends.
He’s written down the Law. To us it is handed.
That’s the end of the story. “Study Torah,” we’re commanded.

Just one more thing which we all must say.
When we finish any book in the Torah we pray,
“Chazak, chazak, v’nitchazek.”
In the Torah we find strength, and its strength we take.

So neighbors and friends, before you unrolled,
The Jews’ glorious story all told in a scroll.
Each letter is perfect. You won’t find mistakes.
Look closely, my friends, and of the Torah partake.

credits

released October 1985 (updated April 2023)
words by Rabbi Elka Abrahamson
add’l words by Billy Dreskin
music and arrangement by Billy Dreskin
vocals by Ellen and Billy Dreskin
Copyright 1985 William Dreskin (BMI)