Simchat Torah is a medieval invention, a holiday designed by and for the Jews of chutz la’aretz, Jews who live outside the Land of Israel.
The Torah tells us that on the 15th of the seventh month is the holiday of Sukkot. The first day is a mikraei kodesh [1] where one is forbidden to engage in melachet avodah, work of the field. Similarly, the eighth day is also a mikraei kodesh where melchet avodah is forbidden. However, there are two basic differences between the first and the eighth day. On the first day of the holiday – and for the subsequent six days – we are to sit in a sukkah. So too on the “first day” we are to gather four species together and rejoice for seven days. Yet one does not sit in the Sukkah nor take the four species on the eight day. In fact, there is no ritual associated with this day. This is the only day on which work is forbidden yet there is no mitzva associated with the day. No matza, no shofar, no fasting – not even cheesecake [2]. There is no obvious reason for this eighth day to be a holiday. Our Sages highlighted the fact that after the long period of holidays we have just concluded no reason is needed: to rejoice for no particular reason is the best reason of all. As our Sages, quoted by Rashi, beautifully describe, G-d said to the Jewish people, kasha alai preidatdchem, your departure is difficult for Me. “It is like a king who invited his children for a seven-day feast. When the time came for them to leave, he said to them: My children, please stay with me one more day — your departure is difficult for Me.”
This unique holiday is but one day. Two days would be a bit too intense and unlikely to add much to our relationship with G-d. Yet this eighth day, Shmini Atzeret, like all the Yamim tovim, is for historical reasons, a two-day yom tov for those who find themselves outside the Land of Israel.
In a stroke of genius this second day, the ninth day if one is counting from the beginning of Sukkot, was transformed into its own holiday, Simchat Torah, the day we finish reading the Torah [3].
As those of us who live outside of Israel know, these two days, Shmini Atzeret and Simchat Torah, have taken on a very different feel. Shmini Atzeret was and is a most solemn day. We say Yizkor as we remember those who have passed on, the chazzan dons a kittel as he does on the Yamim Noraim, praying for rain, tefilat geshem, with a special haunting tune. Simchat Torah on the other hand has a carnival like atmosphere, with singing, dancing, special treats for the kids, and at times even some mischievous activity during davening. This second day of Shmini atzeret was transformed into the new, separate, holiday of Simchat Torah.
With the return of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel, Ashreinu shezachinu lekach, how fortunate that we have merited such [4] these “two holidays” have been merged into one. Yizkor and dancing, Geshem and Gashmiut, physical indulgence all in one day. I know that when I - and others who I have spoken with – were in Israel for Sukkot, we found this combination somewhat jarring. And while it may not feel that way for native Israelis, my hunch is the wide spread beautiful custom of “hakafot sheniot”, of having hakfaot after shmini atzeret ends, reflects the tension between these two days.
Rav Soloveitchik noted how Yom Kippur has dual conflicting themes. It is the day on which G-d renewed His covenant with the Jewish people and gave us once again the Torah. It is thus a day of great joy. It is also the day where our fate is “sealed”, where we stand alone before G-d as He issues a final verdict on our actions. It is thus a day of fear and trembling. And these two emotions contradict each other. It is for this reason, the Rav explains, that the Torah tells us Yom Kippur begins on the ninth of Tishrei, as it must be a two-day holiday. One day to eat and rejoice, and one day for fasting and prayer.
What is true for Yom Kippur is, one would think, also true for Shmini Atzeret – for those who live outside of Israel. But it appears to me that in the modern State of Israel there is nothing more appropriate than joining together Shimni Arzert and Simchat Torah into one day.
We are witness to a great, perhaps the greatest historical miracle, the return of the Jewish people to Land of Israel. We have become a nation once again. The accomplishments of the State of Israel in pretty much every field of human activity are astonishing. The Start-up nation is successful beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. This in addition to its original (at least in Herzl’s mind) purpose of being a haven for Jews from around the world.
At the same time, the pain and suffering the Jewish people have endured to have a State is beyond words. Israel, statistically speaking, is the least safe place for a Jew to live today [5]. Young men and women – and older ones too – having to risk their lives so Jews around the world can be safe. And as Golda Meir noted, we must mourn the fact that beautiful and morally upstanding Jews have been forced to kill others.
We all recognize that the coming together of joy and tragedies have never been more evident than today. Thank G-d, 20 hostages who have endured much too much, have returned home today. We hope and pray that a new era is upon us, one where the “Sukkah of peace will be spread upon us and on Jerusalem”. And yet as I write these words, four bodies are being transferred to Israel for burial with 24 bodies still not home. Shmini Atzeret will always be etched in our minds as a day of tragedy, the worst slaughter of Jewish people since the Holocaust.
It is for good reason that Israel is the only country in the world that observes its Memorial Day on the day before it celebrates its independence. Sadly, without the former there would not be the latter. While that may be true in almost every other country, it is the Jewish State that fully understands and appreciates the link between them.
I am not one who easily sees signs from G-d (I have an expansive understanding of the Talmudic teaching that one who prophesizes is a fool) but it is hard not to see the Hand of G-d in returning the hostages back home just hours before Shmini Atzeret.
As we prepare to enter the day – or days – of Shmini Atzeret and Simchat Torah, may G-d, with an outstretched arm, help bring the peace that we so desperately need. May we soon merit the simcha of Torah each and every day, bashalom ushalva, in peace and comfort. Chag Sameach.
[1] The precise meaning of mikrai kodesh need not concern us here, though it clearly is connected to Jews coming together.
[2] Shavuot too has no unique mitzva today. However, in Temple times there was a special sacrifice brought, that of shtei halechem, special loaves of bread. Shavuot also marked the first time one could bring one’s Bikkurim, first fruit, to the Temple. That being said, our Sages claim the Torah was given on Shavuot despite the Torah never saying such, thus serving as a link to Simchat Torah.
[3] It is instructive to note that the custom in Israel was to have a triennial cycle where the reading of the Torah took over three years to complete. Avraham Yaari in his classic book, Toldot Chag Simchat Torah, The History of Simchat Torah, opens by recounting how in the tenth century Cairo, congregants from the “Israel based shul” joined with the people from the main shul who were, unlike them, celebrating the completion of the Torah.
[4] This quote is from Rav Yosef Shlomo Zevin in his classic Moadim BeHalacah in explaining why many of the laws of tearing one’s clothes upon seeing various parts of Israel no longer apply.
[5] And we who live outside of Israel are much safer because our brothers and sisters in Israel risk their lives on our behalf.