The Torah portion for the week is tied to the observance of Simchat Torah, which means that we read the last chapter of Deuteronomy (the last book in the Torah) and then we read the first chapter of Genesis (the first book in the Torah) without interruption. In other words, we go from here to there without a break.

Deuteronomy ends by recounting the death of Moses, telling of his virtues and accomplishments as the leader of the Israelites. Genesis begins by describing God’s creation of the world and it tells us that it was “good.”

Why are we instructed to start over, going from Deuteronomy to Genesis and Genesis to Deuteronomy without a stopping point? After all, Deuteronomy tells the story of the Israelites wandering through the desert for forty years and the death of their leader, Moses. Why not continue the story of the Israelites as they enter into the promised land? What has the beginning of creation to do with the end of wandering in the desert?

I don’t have a definitive answer, but we can look at a few transitions where we seem to go from here to there without a pause. Nature comes to mind as we seamlessly go through the seasons, summer, fall, winter, and spring, a cycle that has no beginning and no end; the oceans ebb and flow, no beginning and no end; life, itself, goes on through the millennia; Torah goes on, no beginning and no end.

Simchat Torah gives us the opportunity to recommit ourselves to reading Torah, where we can turn over and over again in our mind the wisdom that it imparts to us, no beginning and no end.