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Shemini Atzeret & Simchat Torah

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Shemini Atzeret & Simchat Torah בס"ד CEREMONY & CELEBRATION FAMILY EDITION WITH RABBI LORD JONATHAN SACKS SHEMINI ATZERET & SIMCHAT TORAH 5781 Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah in a Nutshell SHEMINI ATZERET is a strange day in the members of the Royal Family. At the end of Jewish calendar. It is described as the eighth the evening, after most of the guests have day, and thus part of Succot, but it is also desig- taken their leave, there is a small and intimate nated by a name of its own, Atzeret. Is it, or is it gathering of just a few individuals – on that not, a separate festival in its own right? It seems occasion the Queen, Prince Philip, the Queen to be both. How are we to understand this? Mother, the Prime Minister and a few others – for a more relaxed and personal conversation What guided the Sages was the detail that with the guest of honour. It was this kind of whereas on the seven days of Succot seventy occasion, with its Royal protocol, that best young bulls were offered in the Temple, on illustrates how the Sages understood Shemini Atzeret, the eighth day, there was only one. Atzeret. Connecting this to Zechariah’s prophecy that in the Messianic time all nations would cele- SIMCHAT TORAH (celebrated the day after brate Succot, they concluded that the seventy Shemini Atzeret in the Diaspora, and combined sacrifices of Succot represented the seventy into one day in Israel as there is only one day nations of the world as described in Chapter of Yom Tov) is unique among festivals. It is not 10 of Bereishit. Even though Zechariah’s vision mentioned in the Torah, nor in the Talmud. had not yet been realised, it was as if all human- Unlike Purim and Chanukah, it was not formal- ity were in some sense present in Jerusalem on ised by any decision on the part of the religious the festival, and sacrifices were made on their authorities, nor does it commemorate any his- behalf. On the eighth day, as they were leaving, torical deliverance. It grew from the grassroots, God was inviting the Jewish people to a small slowly developing over time. private reception. The wordAtzeret itself was in- Points to It was born in Babylon, probably at the end of terpreted to mean, “Stop, stay a while.” Shemini the period of the Amora’im, the rabbis of the Ponder Atzeret was private time between God and His Talmud, in the fifth or sixth century. The Baby- people. It was a day of particularity (between lonian custom – now universal – was to divide What themes of God and His people) after the universality of the Torah into fifty-four portions to be read in Succot are universal the seven days of Succot (a festival for all the 1 the course of a year (in Israel there was a three- and relevant to all of nations, at least in Messianic times). or three-and-a-half-year cycle). On the second humanity? In February 1997, then-President of the State day of Shemini Atzeret in Babylon (there was Does Shemini of Israel, Ezer Weizman, paid the first, and thus no second day in Israel), the custom was to read Atzeret mean that far the only, state visit to Britain as the guest of the last portion of the Torah, in which Moshe 2 Her Majesty the Queen. The custom is that on blessed the nation at the end of his life. God loves the Jewish the first night of such a visit the Queen hosts a people more than His It had long been the custom to make a cele- state banquet at Buckingham Palace. It was, for other creations? bration on completing a section of study, a the Jews present, a unique and moving moment Talmudic tractate, or an order of the Mishnah Do you think that to hear Hatikvah played in the banqueting hall (Shabbat 118b). Thus, the custom evolved to the source of Sim- of the Palace, and to hear the Queen propose a 3 make a celebration at the completion of the chat Torah (not the toast to the President with the word lechayim. Mosaic books, and it was considered a great Torah, or the Talmud, There is a protocol for such visits. Present honour to be called to the Torah for this last but the people) makes are many representative figures, ambassa- portion. The celebration became known as it less or more mean- dors, members of the Government and other Simchat Torah. ingful as a chag? What Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah Teach Us Today SHEMINI ATZERET covenant with Noach, SUCCOT REPRESENTS more clearly than any and through other festival the dualities of Judaism. The Four him with all Species (lulav, etrog, hadassim and aravot) are humanity, a symbol of the land of Israel, while the succah but after the reminds us of exile. The Four Species are a ritu- hubris of the al of rain, while eating in the succah depends on builders of the absence of rain. Above all, though, there is the Tower of the tension between the universality of nature Bavel, God and the particularity of history. There is an chose another aspect of Succot – rainfall, harvest, climate – to way. Having which everyone can relate, but there is anoth- established er – the long journey through the wilderness a basic threshold in the form of the Noachide – that speaks to the unique experience of the Laws, He then chose one man, one family, Jewish people. and eventually one nation, to become a living This tension between the universal and the par- example of what it is to exist closely and contin- This tension ticular is unique to Judaism. The God of Israel uously in the presence of God. There are, in the is the God of all humanity, but the religion of affairs of humankind, universal laws and specific between the Israel is not the religion of all humanity. It is examples. The Noachide covenant constitutes conspicuous that while the other two Abraham- the universal laws. The way of life of Avraham universal and ic monotheisms, Christianity and Islam, bor- and his descendants is the example. the particular rowed much from Judaism, they did not borrow REFLECT: If the national mission of the this. They became universalist faiths, believing Jewish people is to model the universal val- is unique to that everyone ought to embrace the one true ues of the Torah, are we doing a good job? Judaism. The religion, their own, and that those who do not are denied the blessings of eternity. God of Israel Judaism disagrees. For this it was derided for is the God of many centuries, and to some degree it still is WHAT THIS MEANS in Judaism is that the today. Why, if it represents religious truth, is righteous of all the nations have a share in the all humanity, it not to be shared with everyone? If there is World to Come (Sanhedrin 105a). In con- only one God, why is there not only one way to temporary terms it means that our common but the reli- salvation? There is no doubt that if Judaism had humanity precedes our religious differences. It gion of Israel become an evangelising, conversion-driven re- also means that by creating all humans in His ligion – as it would have had to, had it believed image, God set us the challenge of seeing His is not the in universalism – there would be many more image in one who is not in our image: whose religion of all Jews than there are today. As I write, there are colour, culture, class and creed are different an estimated 2.3 billion Christians, 1.8 billion from our own. The ultimate spiritual chal- humanity. Muslims and only 14 million Jews. The dispari- lenge is to see the trace of God in the face of a ty is vast. stranger. Judaism is the road less travelled, because it Zechariah, in the vision we read as the Haftarah represents a complex truth that could not be ex- for the first day of Succot, puts this precisely. pressed in any other way. The Torah tells a sim- He says that in the End of Days, “The Lord shall ple story. God gave humans the gift of freedom, be King over all the earth; on that day the Lord which they then used not to enhance creation shall be One and His name One” (Zechariah but to endanger it. Adam and Chavah broke the 14:9), meaning that all the nations will recog- first prohibition. Cain, the first human child, nise the sovereignty of a single transcendent Adapted from the became the first murderer. Within a remarkably God. Yet at the same time, Zechariah envisages introduction to the short space of time, all flesh had corrupted its the nations participating only in Succot, the Koren Succot Machzor way on earth, the world was filled with vio- most universal of the festivals, and the one with commentary and lence, and only one man, Noach, found favour in which they have the greatest interest since translation by Rabbi in God’s eyes. After the Flood, God made a they all need rain. He does not envisage them Sacks 2 becoming Jews, accepting the “yoke of the SIMCHAT TORAH commands”, all 613 of them. He does not speak of their conversion. The practical outcome of THE EMERGENCE OF Simchat Torah signals this dual theology – the universality of God and something remarkable. You may have noticed the particularity of Torah – is that we are com- that Succot and Shemini Atzeret are both manded to be true to our faith, and a blessing described as zeman simchateinu, the season of to others, regardless of their faith.
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