Our month of holidays is approaching the end, with Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah this coming Shabbat. Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and the eight days in between are a time of deep introspection, contemplation of the way we have lived in the past year, and the promise to change and live better lives in the coming year. Their heaviness is, in great part, because they are days when we ponder our mortality. Life is not guaranteed. How will we use the hours, days, months or years left to us? After these heavy days comes the joy of Sukkot, where we enjoy and express gratitude for the life-sustaining bounty the earth gives us. Shemini Atzeret is the closing coda to these days. A holiday in itself, our rabbis compare it to the end of a family wedding. Guests have come from all over to celebrate the joyous event and after eight days of celebration they have gone home. Mother and father say to their children, stay with us one more day. Let’s just enjoy each other as a family. So God says to the Jewish people, stay with me one more day. Let’s just enjoy each other’s company. So Shemini Atzeret is a day to dwell in gentle, intimate contact with God. The idea itself is astounding and essential, that we can have an intimate and personal relationship with the creator of all life. It is an essential component of Jewish religious belief and practice: that God cares about us as individuals. In Israel and the Reform movement we combine this sweet day with Simchat Torah, where we celebrate the end and the re-start of the annual cycle of Torah readings. This Shabbat, Shemini Atzeret, Simchat Torah join us at TBH Friday night for a special, fun celebration of these three sacred days and then spend the rest of Shabbat with those you love, and with God, in intimate connection.
Deuteronomy 33:1-34:12; Genesis 1:1-2:3; Numbers 29:35-30:1, Special Torah Readings for Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah, October 7, 2023
October 5, 2023 by Dean Kertesz • Drashot
Our month of holidays is approaching the end, with Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah this coming Shabbat. Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and the eight days in between are a time of deep introspection, contemplation of the way we have lived in the past year, and the promise to change and live better lives in the coming year. Their heaviness is, in great part, because they are days when we ponder our mortality. Life is not guaranteed. How will we use the hours, days, months or years left to us? After these heavy days comes the joy of Sukkot, where we enjoy and express gratitude for the life-sustaining bounty the earth gives us. Shemini Atzeret is the closing coda to these days. A holiday in itself, our rabbis compare it to the end of a family wedding. Guests have come from all over to celebrate the joyous event and after eight days of celebration they have gone home. Mother and father say to their children, stay with us one more day. Let’s just enjoy each other as a family. So God says to the Jewish people, stay with me one more day. Let’s just enjoy each other’s company. So Shemini Atzeret is a day to dwell in gentle, intimate contact with God. The idea itself is astounding and essential, that we can have an intimate and personal relationship with the creator of all life. It is an essential component of Jewish religious belief and practice: that God cares about us as individuals. In Israel and the Reform movement we combine this sweet day with Simchat Torah, where we celebrate the end and the re-start of the annual cycle of Torah readings. This Shabbat, Shemini Atzeret, Simchat Torah join us at TBH Friday night for a special, fun celebration of these three sacred days and then spend the rest of Shabbat with those you love, and with God, in intimate connection.