ABOUT THE HOLIDAYS:


Sh’mini Atzeret, the Eighth Day of Assembly, is celebrated on the eighth day of Sukkot and is mentioned in the Torah (Leviticus 33:36 and Numbers 29:35-38) as a specific and separate festival day. As on any festival, we usher in Sh’mini Atzeret with candles and kiddush and treat it as a day of rest on the same level as Shabbat. This holiday officially ends our celebration of Sukkot, and it is no longer a mitzvah to eat in a sukkah – although, if the weather is wonderful, some families continue to enjoy an outdoor meal.
The observance of Sh’mini Atzeret involves two major customs. One is the recitation of yizkor (memorial) prayers. The other is inclusion in the daily Amidah of the prayer for rain, in which we acknowledge that it is God who makes the wind blow and the rain fall. Although it may be difficult for us in the U.S. truly to feel the desire for rainfall, our prayers are actually directed toward Israel, where precipitation of autumn and winter is crucial to the entire year. Jews have been following the practice of praying for rain at this season from the time of the SecondTemple. Rabbi Irving Greenberg called Sh’mini Atzeret the “Zionist holiday” because this prayer has kept alive the connection between world Jewry and the Land of Israel throughout our 2,000 years of dispersion.
We celebrate Simchat Torah, our holiday of Rejoicing in the Torah, the day after Sh’mini Atzeret, on the 23rd of Tishrei. In Israel, and in Reform congregations, Sh’mini Atzeret and Simchat Torah have been combined into one festival.
Simchat Torah, the last holiday of the fall season, marks the completion of the annual Torah reading cycle with the last verses of Deuteronomy, upon which the entire congregation stands and together chants, “Chazak, chazak, v’nitchazeyk!(Be strong, be strong, and let us strengthen each other!)” We immediately chant the first verses of the book of Genesis, and “B’reishit (In the beginning…”) is read from a second Torah made ready for this moment. Simchat Torah, one of our most joyful holidays, marks a time when we express true delight and gratitude as the “People of the Book.”