Shemini Atzeret - 5787

Shemini Atzeret - 5787

Rabbi Hal Miller

  Taking Leave of the Succah

The Torah commands us to celebrate Succot for seven days [Devarim 16:13,15]. It also commands us an additional concluding day, in both Vayikra [23:39] ("the first day is a rest day and the eighth day is a rest day") and Bamidbar [29:35] ("on the eighth day an atzeret shall be for you"). Why do we "take leave of the succah" on the afternoon of this day of Shemini Atzeret, eighth day atzeret, instead of the end of the seventh day of the seven days of Succot? Exactly what does atzeret mean in this context?

There is very little to go on within the Torah itself, merely these few words in these verses, none of which explain why this holiday exists. Many commentators have given reasons, defining the word atzeret in the process. Sfas Emes brings Onkelos that the word means gathering and that the festival is a season of unity. Peninei Halakha expands on this, "Atzeret derives from atzara, a gathering for on this day we gather together to bid farewell to the annual holiday cycle." Others emphasize that the word atzeret is directly related to atzur, which means to stop, to hold back or to prevent. In that context they explain that God is "holding back" Israel from departing after the Succot festival for one more day because of His love. Thus Sfas Emes points out that although Succot is destined to be a holiday for all people in the future, Shemini Atzeret is limited to God and the Jews.

All the commentators note that since this day is no longer Succot, there is no mitzvah to dwell in the succah and in fact we should clearly not do so. However, that applies in the land of Israel. In the Diaspora, since there is a doubt as to which day is the seventh day of Succot and which is the day after, we apply that exclusion to what we call Simchat Torah, which is actually the second day of a one-day holiday. Therefore we may eat in the succah on the Diaspora on Shemini Atzeret, without a bracha regarding the succah, and our "taking leave" then occurs late on that day instead of Hoshannah Rabbah, the seventh day of Succot, to ensure we have covered the entire seven days.

There are other possible reasons that this day is called atzeret. On Simchat Torah, which in Israel is on the same day, we complete the annual reading cycle of the Torah and roll the scroll back to the beginning. During the mussaf service we add in an extensive prayer for rain, and begin saying the "mashiv haruach umorid hageshem" in our prayer, ending either the lack of that prayer or the substitute prayer for dew. Since this festival occurs at the end of the growing and harvest season, the atzeret may represent the end of those in order to begin the rejuvenation of the land for next year's crops. Thus when we step out of the succah for the last time, we are leaving behind many things and beginning a new cycle.

The wording of the blessing we say as we take leave is "May it be your will, Hashem our God and the God of our forefathers, that just as I merited to sit in this sukkah, so may I merit in the coming year to dwell in the sukkah of the skin of Leviatan. Next year in Yerushalayim." We have just begun a new year. Our sitting in the succah closed out the old year with a mitzvah, which will certainly, with the help of God, lead us to more down the road.