On and on, round and round we dance the Simchat Torah Hakafot, proudly parading our Torah seven times around the Synagogue.

But doesn’t going around in circles get you nowhere?

A straight answer to Hakafot fits like a square peg in a round hole, so let’s use circular reasoning, and give each revolutionary insight an honorary Hakafah:

1. In Kabbalah, the Hakafot represent supernal Iggulim and Makifim, Divine spheres that transcend linear formations…

2. The Torah’s last chapter is not The End; the reader starts the continuous cycle right over again from the Braishis beginning…

3. The Scholar sees Torah’s infinite wisdom, “Turn within it, turn within it again, for all is within it” (Avot 5)…

4.Geometrically, we’re not just spinning our wheels, for the joyous Hakafot spirals
rise ever higher…

5.The physicist sees Torah’s ripple effect expanding beyond its Simchas Torah epicenter to daily life year round…

6. Socially, the circle is a great equalizer. No one is in front of the line or in back of the line as we form rings around the Torah…

7. Scientifically, Hakafot energize us like an electric circuitous flow, as Hakafot’s spring-like coils jump charge the year ahead…