The Maccabaean

THERE are holidays when lengthy prayers and new raiment discharge religious duties. But Simchas Torah introduces playfulness and blends it with piety, and one is at a loss to know where either begins. When the scrolls are carried about the synagogue, an unctuous kiss of the trappings harmonizes with the sly jerk at the coats of the old zealots who carry them. An apple hurled from the women's gallery in the midst of the long prayer is not a capital offense, nor is romping in the synagogue unsanctified by religious precedent. But the jollity reaches its climax when the new president of the congregation is installed. The installation is an American invention, a compromise with the little conceits of democracy. There are so few other glories connected with the office of president that this public function must be a composite of them all; it is a public declaration of the presidential honor.....

The nuts are beginning to ripen, and for days before the holidays Joey and Aleck scour the woods for hickory nuts. They were intended for the president. When it comes to the test and the question arises "why should good nuts be wasted?" the hickory nuts are hidden away in a little box and horse chestnuts are accumulated. They are to greet the congregation's new official.

Before the Hakofes, the retiring president must,—it is the custom—stand forth at the altar in the place usually reserved for the Rav, and in extremely bad English, introduce the new president. As soon as that individual is observed, in a new Prince Albert coat with a shining silk hat, he is greeted with tremendous applause, which at once takes shape and form. It comes from the gallery as cheers and from the ground floor as horse chestnuts. Joey often provides himself with a few butter-

nuts—heavy black nuts—which he sacrifices in the good cause. The pity of it is that the new president is convinced that he too must deliver a "speech" and in his then befuddled state of mind, due to the great honor thrust upon him, it becomes impossible for him to collect his vocabulary and say anything. His futile attempt serves to incense the audience, especially the boys with nuts to hurl, and finally even the staid members of the congregation think it poetic justice to shy a nut or two at the unlucky recipient of schul honors. When the speech comes, in jerks and stammers, it serves to justify whatever happens to the speaker. Then the Shammes, struggling to suppress a smile, pounds the table and frowns. The retiring president shrugs his shoulders; the old men smile benignly, while the new president, oblivious of the danger of the situation, delivers his address as if it must be taken off his mind.

The following morning, hilarity reigns supreme. The schul is transformed into a bedlam. The law is not the recognized law, and each one does what he deems right in his own eyes. The Shammes provides a barrel of good, red apples; and, what is more important, a number of bottles of wine, and cake, and when the morning is well gone, the staid members are flurried, filled with an uncertain pious enthusiasm, and pass from seat to seat with unsteady steps beaming with a joy that is divinely reckless.....

This holiday introduces new problems. On the Day of Atonement the girls pray, sitting close to their weeping mothers, reading from the same moist prayer book. Occasionally they throw shy glances toward the boys, but the latter disdain to reciprocate. It is man's prerogative to pray, and the girls are intruders. Why do they come to schul? It is evident that they come out of an unreasonable desire