Shabbat Shmini Atzeret, 22 Tishrei 5764, 18 October 2003

Shabbat Shalom: Shmini Atzeret - Simchat Torah

By Shlomo Riskin  

Efrat, Israel - The Hebrew calendar is a direct product of the Torah, the Biblical directives as to the precise month, days and agricultural seasons in which we celebrate the various festivals (Leviticus chapter 33). The climax of the Hebrew calendar is this seventh month, which opens with Rosh Hashanah and concludes with Shemini Atzeret – Simchat Torah. And if the Hebrew year begins with the creation of the Jewish nation on Pesach, the festival of the first month of the Jewish calendar, and continues on to the Revelation of the Jewish religion on Shavuot, the festival of the third month of the Jewish calendar, then it must reach its apogee with the perfection of the world and its redemption as expressed by Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot and Shemini Atzeret on the seventh month of Tishrei. 

Rosh Hashanah is the day of the coronation of G-d as King of the entire world, accepted by all as the G-d who wants life, love and peace. Yom Kippur is the Day of Forgiveness – personal, national and universal repentance which extends even to Nineveh, Assyria, arch-enemy of Israel, as testified to by the Book of Jonah which is read on Yom Kippur afternoon. Sukkot, replete with the rich fragrance of the four species of fruit and vegetation identified with the Land of Israel, heralds the return of the people of Israel to the Land of Israel, certainly the beginning of the sprouting of world freedom and redemption. After all, it is only from the backdrop of our own land and State, it is only when we are free of subjugation by any host government and must deal with the very real and complex issues of peace and war, economic and social disparities within our citizenry, medical advancement and ethics, scientific, business and cultural development, that we will truly be in a position to influence the other nation-states towards a non-terrorist, democratic government and a moral way of life based upon the seven Noahide laws of conduct. And indeed, we are Biblically ordained to bring a total of seventy bullocks as offerings to the Holy Temple on Sukkot, symbolizing our concern for and commitment to the proverbial seventy nations of the world. 

But within this context and line-up, Shemini Atzeret seems to be an anomaly, a misfit. The only “commandment of the day” is our mention of rain for the first time after the hot, dry spring and summer months, the declaration by the Cantor of special praise to the Almighty “who makes the wind blow and brings down the rain.” The first Mishnah in the Talmudic Tractate Ta'anit ordains that we begin reciting this statement of praise from the additional Amidah on Shemini Atzeret until Passover, some seven months later – and it is added to the second blessing of the Amidah, in which we praise G-d for “quickening the dead.” What does rain have to do with redemption, and what has rain to do with causing the dead to rise to life? And then, in later Gaonic times (from the eighth to tenth centuries), the custom was established to celebrate our yearly reading of the entire five Books of the Bible on Shemini Atzeret (or on the day after, in the diaspora) – since we start reading from the beginning of the Torah once again on the Sabbath following Shemini Atzeret. But what does rain or even rejoicing by dancing with Torah Scrolls, have to do with redemption, the apparent theme of the Tishrei festivals? Doesn’t Simchat Torah seem to be a mere “tack-on”, a ploy to give Shemini Atzeret some content and significance in addition to our declaration of rain? Indeed, Shemini Atzeret seems to be more anti-climax than climax, more perplexing than promising. 

In order to understand the message of Shemini Atzeret, it is important that we analyze the symbolism of water as it appears throughout the festivals of Tishrei. The Code of Jewish Law mandates that we immerse ourselves in mikveh water on the day before Rosh Hashanah and that we go to a river on the first day of Rosh Hashanah in order to cast away our sins; we also go to the mikveh right before Yom Kippur (Orah Haim, 581,4 and 583). Water is the symbol par excellence of birth – or rebirth – since all of life originally emerged from water (“And the spirit of the Lord hovered over the face of the waters” Genesis 1:2) and no form of life as we know it can exist without water. The embryo is surrounded by water, and the sign of birth is the “breaking of the water,” in the modern parlance. Hence conversion as well as repentance require ritual immersion – an active plunge on the part of the participant to recreate him/her self. 

But sometimes it becomes inordinately different for an individual to truly transform himself, to change his fundamental personality. Sometimes an individual is so removed from G-d – and even from life, if he has been intimately touched by death – that he requires the special grace and love of a beneficent G-d to change him, to save him/her from his/her stubborn nature, to rescue him/her from the abyss of death. Torah law ordains that if one becomes defiled by contact with death, the Kohen-priest, acting as G-d’s special agent, sprinkles the special waters of the ashes of the red heifer and the individual becomes purified. In this act of purification it is G-d who is the active purifier, it is G-d who is the active healer. 
On the Day of Atonement, it is this second aspect of purification which is emphasized. We read again and again the words of the prophet Ezekiel, who tells us how in order to bring about the ultimate redemption – the Almighty Himself “will sprinkle upon you the waters of purification and they shall be purified.” (Ezekiel 36:25) Throughout the festival of Sukkot we continue to invoke the symbol of water, with the arava or willow-plant - which can only grow around riverbeds or areas of plentiful water – becomes a veritable expression of our prayer, and water – in addition to the usual wine libation - is offered in the Holy Temple. “And you shall draw forth water with joy from the waters of salvation” is the great song of Sukkot celebration. 

Shemini Atzeret is the culmination of these prayers. The imagery of G-d ‘s rain descending upon us from the heavens is reminiscent of Ezekiel’s prophecy of the Divine actually sprinkling us with the water of purification and salvation. In a world threatened by homicidal terrorism and nuclear destruction, such a redemption is tantamount to “quickening the dead,” offering us new-found life. And the salvation can only come when we remove the Torah from the Scrolls, teach the lessons of a G-d of justice, compassion and peace to the entire world, and the nations of the world “turn their swords into ploughshares, their spears into pruning-hooks,” and “the world becomes filled with the knowledge of G-d as the waters cover the seas.” It is through G-d’s loving and purifying waters that ultimate peace and salvation will come to Israel and the world. This is the vision and the hope of Shemini Atzeret – Simchat Torah. 

Shabbat Shalom and Hag Sameach. 

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