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Part of the series 91¿ì²¥ High Holiday Webinars

With Rabbi Mychal Springer, Adjunct Professor, 91¿ì²¥, and Manager of Clinical Pastoral Education, New York-Presbyterian Hospital  

The High Holiday season ends with Shemini Atzeret—the Eighth Day of Assembly. According to our tradition, on Rosh Hashanah, our fate for the coming year is written; on Yom Kippur, it is sealed; and on Shemini Atzeret, it is mailed out. This year, as we approach Shemini Atzeret, the holiday carries the weight of last year’s massacre, the war it launched, and the pain of captives carried into darkness.

In this session, we explore the unique themes of the holiday and hold them in dialogue with this moment of brokenness, the weight of war, the complexities of peoplehood, and the ongoing need for healing and rebirth. 

Prepare for 5785 with three meaningful, enriching sessions.

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With Rabbi Gordon Tucker  

The Torah presents Shemini Atzeret—the “Eighth Day of Assemblyâ€�—as an add-on to the seven days of the Sukkot pilgrimage festival. The lulav is set aside, and the sukkah vacated. So, is it a “holiday about nothingâ€�?  Or can we see in it a most meaningful coda to the Days of Awe, in which we learn profound lessons about endings? Through a close reading of Kohelet (Ecclesiastes), the Yizkor prayer, and other significant texts, we explore answers to these questions.   

About the Series

Part of the Series, “The Torah of the New Year”

Join 91¿ì²¥ faculty for a close reading of several of the biblical texts that we read during the fall holiday season. Discover new insights into these readings and reflect on what meanings they hold for us today.  

High Holidays

Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur Resources

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Fall Festivals

Sukkot, Simhat Torah, and Shemini Atzeret

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Hanukkah

Resources for Festival of Lights

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Purim

Esther and more explained

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Passover

From preparation to Seder Study

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Shavuot

Insight into this Pilgrimage Festival

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Additional Holiday Resources

In his bookKohelet’s Pursuit of Truth, Rabbi Benjamin J. Segal, former president of the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, presents an arresting new translation and commentary on Ecclesiastes that unlocks the ancient wisdom of one of the deepest and most controversial books of the Tanakh.

Adele Ginsberg’s Sukkah (Chancellor Shuly Rubin Schwartz)

This photo from The 91¿ì²¥ Library evokes for me the loving care with which many early twentieth-century 91¿ì²¥ faculty wives cultivated religious spirit and community. Ginzberg, or Mama G. as she was known, inherited the 91¿ì²¥ sukkah project from Mathilde Schechter. For decades, she raised funds, shopped, and supervised the sukkah’s decoration with fresh fruits, vegetables, and greenery. READ MORE

Ushpizin
Ushpizin, (literally, “guestsâ€�) is the tradition of inviting the exalted men and women of the Bible into our sukkot. Each year, professional and novice artists including 91¿ì²¥ students, faculty, and staff have taken the concept of ushpizin as the centerpiece and inspiration for an art installation in the famed sukkot built each year in the 91¿ì²¥ courtyard. 

Join 91¿ì²¥ faculty for a close reading of several of the biblical texts that we read during the fall holiday season. Discover new insights into these readings and reflect on what meanings they hold for us today.

This question is not a modern one. The Rabbis themselves offer various explanations for this mysterious holiday. Shemini Atzeret is mentioned in Leviticus 23:36, where the Torah says, “On the eighth day you shall observe a sacred occasion and bring an offering by fire to the Lord; it is a solemn gathering: you shall not work at your occupations.â€� Rashi, commenting on this verse, explains that the word atzeret comes from the root atzer, which means “to hold back,â€� making this holiday the one of “holding back.â€� This “holding backâ€� is not God’s remaining while we leave. Instead, God is asking us to remain in the holy space created by the month of Tishrei for an extra day, for one more moment. This is not because there are more things we have to do, but simply so we can be together, in God’s presence and with one another.  Rashi, paraphrasing a gemara in BT Sukkah 55b, brings an analogy to understand the role of Shemini Atzeret:

It is similar to the case of a king who invited his children to a banquet for a certain number of days. When the time arrived for them to take their departure he said, “Children, I beg of you, stay one day more with me; it is so hard for me to part with you!� (Rashi on Lev. 23:36)

The parable suggests that Shemini Atzeret is not primarily for us; rather, it is for God. We typically conceive of the month of Tishrei as being about ourselves. What are our goals for the coming year? How can we overcome our past failures, to ensure that we can do better in the future? What does it mean for us to confront the precariousness of our own existence and still experience deep happiness? When we spend time during this season considering our relationship with God, it’s often in terms of what God can do, or has done, for us. Shemini Atzeret offers something different. It’s about what we can do for God.

Certainly, after the many days of holidays and hours in shul, Shemini Atzeret can feel almost excessive. Do we really need an extra day just because God wants us to stay close? Aren’t we offered the opportunity to be close every day? Whether through daily prayer, learning Torah, or performing mitzvot, we can always be acting with our relationship with God in mind. At the same time, though, this idea is so beautiful. God doesn’t need us to be close so we can pound our chests or wave our lulavim. God doesn’t need us to be close at all. God wants us to be close. How extraordinary that God, who shouldn’t need people at all, wants to be in relationship with the Jewish people, just for the sake of intimacy.

This year, perhaps more than any other, the feeling of longing for each other’s company is deep, and yet that intimacy feels unattainable. Whereas I usually enter Shemini Atzeret exhausted from too much shul and too much deviation from routine, this year, I long to reenter that communal space, if only for one more day. As God longs for the Jewish people to remain in His company, if only for one more day, many of us long to be together, even though we know that for us to be safe, we must be apart. In that sense, Shemini Atzeret is the perfect holiday for this moment, for 2020, and for Tishrei 5781. Please, we say to each other. It is so hard for me to part from you. When we seek God, we do so without the expectation that we can see God. And so too now, when we seek each other, we have learned to trust that being in community can happen without being in physical proximity. May the day come soon when we can gather with each other, but until we can, Shemini Atzeret promises us that even when we are apart, we are still together.

The publication and distribution of the 91¿ì²¥ Commentary are made possible by a generous grant from Rita Dee (³úâ€�l) and Harold Hassenfeld (³úâ€�l).