The Jewish Fall Holidays: A Journey to Our Best Selves
We are a little more than halfway through the Jewish month of Tishrei, which means we are winding down another year of focusing heavily on this cycle of Jewish holidays, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and this week Sukkot. And wait, there is also Shemini Atzeret (What is that one about?) and Simchat Torah.
As we begin another Fall season, settle into our Fall and Winter work routines, and another year of asking - Who created this calendar of holidays? I’ve grown to love the proximity of our holidays despite the harried nature it creates. When I focus on these fall holidays, they all come into focus together.
On Rosh Hashanah, we celebrate a new year, returning to our essential values and our greatest selves. Rosh Hashanah is both a time for celebration and an opportunity for reflecting on who we are meant to be.
Before we approach the holiday of Yom Kippur, we have the ten days of Teshuva (repentance), the intermediary days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. On Yom Kippur, we pray as a community, and we seek forgiveness from those we have harmed; we fast (if able), and we celebrate becoming our new selves.
On Sukkot, which I often see as an opportunity to play outside, we build a temporary home out in nature and invite friends, neighbors, and community members to join us in fellowship and to share a meal. Sukkot is a time to relax together and to share the blessings we have with others.
By placing all of our fall holidays so closely together, we are invited to celebrate the truly awe-inspiring possibilities of a new year as we become the best we are meant to be, as individuals and together as a community.
May 5784 be a year filled with new possibilities for all, and may we commit to the holy work of bringing more love, compassion, and justice into this new year, into our lives, and into our communities.
At the conclusion of the holiday of Sukkot are the two holidays, Shemini Atzeret (Eighth Day of the Assembly) and Simchat Torah (Rejoicing of the Torah). Shemini Atzeret is mentioned in the Torah, but its exact function is a little unclear. When Shemini Atzeret is mentioned in the Torah, it is always mentioned in the context of the seven-day holiday of Sukkot. Spiritually, our great sages offer that Shemini Atzeret is an opportunity to spend an additional day with God at the end of Sukkot, or we can see this as an extra day to invite friends into our Sukkah.
Some communities celebrate Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah on two separate days, and in other communities, the holidays are combined. However the holidays are celebrated; the holiday of Simchat Torah (which begins Saturday evening on October 7th and ends at sundown on Sunday, October 8th) is the finale of the Jewish fall holiday season. Simchat Torah culminates in a loud celebration of being in Jewish Community. On Simchat Torah, we celebrate our relationship to the Torah and express our love and joy as we dance and sing with the Torah. On Simchat Torah, we also celebrate the completion of our annual reading of the Torah and starting the Torah over from the beginning in Bereshit (Genesis), with the words “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” And so we begin a new chapter of our lives on our journey to be the best we are meant to be.
Mo'adim L'simcha
Chag Sameach
Gut Yontif
and
Shabbat Shalom