Shemini Atzeret

How Should We Approach New Year, as Individuals or a People?

By:

Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz

The start of the New Year, the month of Tishrei, is full of holy days, among them four foundational ones: Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot and Simchat Torah-Shemini Atzeret. They are as different from one another as possible. Yet, we may also think of all four as two pairs of two. The first two -- the day of memory and...

Torah

Holidays Stress Close Bond of God and People

By:

Rabbi Joshua Runyan

Shemini Atzeret-Simchat Torah You've spent seven days eating, drinking and perhaps sleeping in a walled, tent-like structure with a roof specifically designed to let in the rain and the sunlight. Over the course of the week, with the exception of Shabbat, you've gathered together a curious combination of palm branch, two willow twigs and three myrtle branches, and held it...

Torah

Changing the World, One Mitzvah at a Time

By:

Rabbi David Gutterman, JE Feature

Shemini Atzeret, Deuteronomy 14:22-16:17 With all due respect to U.N. resolutions 242 and 338 regarding so-called "occupied territory," let me explain what these words really mean. When my granddaughter, Ariel Daizy, comes to our house for a Shabbat or Yom Tov, the house becomes -- in the most delicious and sweetest sense of the word -- occupied territory. You can't...

Torah

A Bit of the Somber Thrust After All the Joy

Torah Portion

By:

Rabbi Lisa Malik

SUKKOT, Exodus 33:12-34:26; Numbers 29:23-31 Ba-yom ha-shemini atzeret tihyeh lachem - "On the eighth day, you shall have an atzeret." The word atzeret is derived from the Hebrew verb that means "to restrain," "to be confined," "to hold back." It may refer to an occasion in which people are assembled or confined in one place. It may also mean that...