Jews celebrate Simchat Torah holiday, ending festive period
Men and women parade the holy Torah scrolls through the streets throughout Israel as they mark the end of Sukkot and rejoice in the reading of the final Torah portion.
During the year, every Saturday in synagogue, devout Jews read a portion of the Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. Simchat Torah marks the reading of the final portion and the start of the cycle for the next year.
On Simchat Torah valuable parchment scrolls are taken from their places of safe-keeping in synagogues into the streets and devout men and women dance with them.
The men also carry the scrolls around the synagogue in a series of seven circuits that symbolize the restart of the reading of the Torah.
In the ultra-Orthodox Mea Shearim neighbourhood, hundreds of rejoicers donning traditional fur hats and festive white, grey and golden robes packed the synagogues to celebrate the holiday, holding up Torah scrolls, singing and dancing.
In Tel Aviv's popular Bograshov Street, Orthodox men and women gathered with the scrolls on the road, eating, drinking, dancing and singing.
Simchat Torah marks the end of the week-long festival of Sukkot and is the final holiday of almost a month of festivities that includes the Jewish New Year and the solemn fasting day of Yom Kippur.
