Gathering place
Observant Jews end the High Holy season by celebrating the Torah
The end of the High Holy Days brings some relaxation and fun after the intensity of Rosh Hashanah, Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
Beginning five days after Yom Kippur, Sukkot is a celebration in which Jews construct huts, or sukkah, outside in which they dwell in for the next seven days. This year, Sukkot is from Sept. 20-27.
These dwellings, made of palm leaves and bamboo branches, represent huts the Israelites lived in during their 40 years wandering the desert after escaping Egyptian slavery. Sukkot is one of three pilgrimage festivals of the year.
Following Sukkot, the holiday season rounds off with Shmini Atzeret, the “Eighth Day of Assembly,” from Sept. 27-28 and Simchat Torah, “Rejoicing the Torah,” from Sept. 28-29.
The observance of Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah are centered in the synagogue and community.
Observant Jews do not work or travel on Shemini Atzeret, as it is a holy day. Rabbi Daniel Horwitz of Adat Shalom Synagogue in Farmington Hills explains that there are some disagreements as to whether this day is its own holiday or the last day of Sukkot.
“Shmini is the Hebrew word for eighth, but there is some debate about what the word Atzeret actually means,” Rabbi Horwitz says. “In general it would translate to ‘a gathering.’”
German Rabbi Sampson Raphial Hersh, in the 19th century, famously translated Atzeret to mean “gather or store up.”
“That’s the interpretation I like to follow,” Horwitz says. “We should store up sentiments of gratitude and devotion we’ve acquired during this High Holiday season.”
The Shemini Atzeret service offers a special prayer for rain, Geshem, is said. This prayer coincides with the Tal prayer said on the first day of Passover, which starts the drier season. Ancient Israelites prayed for rain during this time for their crops to grow. This commemorates the rainy season in ancient Israel, because Israelites relied heavily on rains for their crops.
During Shmini Atzert, the last portion of the Torah is read while Simchat Torah celebrates the Torah by reading the last verses of the five books of the prophet Moses.
“We (Jews) have the oldest book club in the world, but we have a particular interest in reading these five books of Moses,” Horwitz says. “This celebrates reaching the end of the five books of Moses, then we get to start all over again.”
The Torah is celebrated by taking the scrolls out of the ark that houses them in the synagogue and spending the evening dancing, singing and rejoicing. The scrolls are carried around the sanctuary in seven circles called hakafot.
As a way of showing pride for their culture, some people like to take the dance party outside into the street outside their synagogues. In celebration, it is customary to indulge in alcohol on this day.
In Orthodox synagogues, dancing is mainly carried out by men and boys, while women and young girls have their own circles. Conservative synagogues, which are more progressive than orthodox ones, allow men and women to dance together in a circle.
After several weeks of services and celebrations that encompass the Jewish High Holy Days, there is a respite until the Hanukkah season, near the end of November.