In college, I was part of a martial arts collective in which we began and ended our practice in a circle. Rather than sit in a line in belt order, we sat in a circle with the most advanced next to the least advanced, black belt adjacent to white belt. This expressed the teaching that the most advanced should always maintain “beginner’s mind,” and the circle itself conveyed a feeling of equality, which aligned well with the egalitarian spirit of the university. 

On each day of Sukkot at a traditional synagogue service, you will see hakafot — circuits around the synagogue with lulav in hand. On Hoshanah Rabbah, there are seven of these circular parades; and on Simchat Torah, we dance for seven hakafot with Torah scrolls. What might be the meaning of dancing in circles during these autumn festivals? 

In rabbinic tradition, circle dancing is associated with women and the redemptive future to come. The Talmud describes an ancient custom that took place on the afternoons of Yom Kippur and the 15th of Av, when the daughters of Jerusalem would go to the vineyards to dance (and look for marriage partners). The word used to describe their dance is m’cholot, circle dancing. Rabbi Ulla Bira’ah taught in Rabbi Eleazar’s name that in the redemptive future to come, God will make a circle dance of the righteous ones (tzadikim) and sit in this circle in the Garden of Eden and each one of the tzadikim will point a finger towards God who is the center and they will sing: “This is our God, for whom we waited…” (Isaiah 25/Ta’anit 31a)

Why did the sages of the Talmud connect the future circle dance of the tzaddikim with the circle dancing of the daughters of Jerusalem? Before they would go off to the vineyards to dance, the young women would borrow white garments from one another so that no one wore their own clothing and one who was too poor to own clean, white garments would not feel ashamed. In this way, the women created the ethos of the circle, the circle as an egalitarian symbol. 

In the circle dance of the daughters of Jerusalem, hierarchical and status distinctions are put aside through the exchange of clothing and the wearing of the same white color. In the formation of the circle, there is no hierarchy — each point on the circumference is equidistant from the center, much as in the circle dance of the redemptive time to come, all will see themselves and others as equidistant from the Divine center, and all distinctions and hierarchies will become irrelevant.

This is a week in which we move our collective body in circles, in a manner that points to equality. It is no coincidence that Sukkot has a deep connection with universal humanity. The bull sacrifices of the ancient temple during the week of Sukkot added up to 70 and the rabbis understood these as standing for the seventy nations of the world, which represented all of humanity. On Shemini Atzeret, there is only one bull offering, which perhaps points to a future to come when all will recognize their unity and their oneness. This is the significance of the fervent circle dance on Simchat Torah. The hierarchies of difference are transcended, and all dance in a circle around the Torah, representing the Divine center. 

As we move into the joyful days of Sukkot, Hoshanah Rabbah and Simchat Torah, perhaps, at some moment, each of us will glimpse the longed-for future within our circle dance, when all of humanity will experience themselves and each other as images of the One, and in doing so, we may come closer to making that future a reality through the power of our circle dance.

Rabbi Tracy Nathan teaches at the Saul Mirowitz Jewish Community School.