Shemini Atzeret

Shemini Atzeret is a Jewish holiday. It is celebrated on the 22nd day of the Hebrew month of Tishrei, which usually coincides with late September or early October. It directly follows the festival of Sukkot, which is celebrated for seven days; thus, Shemini Atzeret is literally the eighth day . It is a separate—yet connected—holy day devoted to the spiritual aspects of the festival of Sukkot. Part of its duality as a holy day is that it is simultaneously considered connected to Sukkot and a separate festival in its own right.
Outside the Land of Israel, this is further complicated by the additional day added to all biblical holidays except Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Shemini Atzeret is thus sometimes wrongly regarded as the eighth day of Sukkot outside the Land of Israel, leading to sometimes involved analysis as to which practices of each holiday are to apply.
The celebration of Simchat Torah is the most distinctive feature of the holiday, but it is a later rabbinical innovation. In the Land of Israel, the celebrations of Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah are combined on a single day, and the names are used interchangeably. In the Diaspora, the celebration of Simchat Torah is deferred to the second day of the holiday. Commonly, only the first day is referred to as Shemini Atzeret, while the second is called Simchat Torah.
Karaite Jews and Samaritans also observe Shemini Atzeret, as they do all biblical holidays. However, due to differences in calendar calculations, it may occur on a different day from the conventional Jewish celebration. Karaites and Samaritans do not include the rabbinical innovation of Simchat Torah in their observance of the day and do not observe a second day—of any holiday—in the Diaspora.

Biblical origins

According to The Jewish Encyclopedia, atzeret is the name given to this day in four different locations in the Hebrew Bible. It is not mentioned in Deuteronomy 16, and is found only in those parts of the Bible known as the Priestly Code. Like atzarah, ''atzeret denotes "day of assembly", from atzar ; hence the name atzeret given to the seventh day of Pesaḥ. Owing, however, to the fact that both Shemini Atzeret and the seventh day of Pesaḥ are described as atzeret'', the name was taken to mean "the closing festival".

Significance

''Shemini:'' "Eighth Day" of Sukkot

When Shemini Atzeret is mentioned in the Torah, it is always mentioned in the context of the seven-day festival of Sukkot: the holiday Shemini Atzeret immediately follows. For example, Sukkot is described in detail in Leviticus 23:33–43. Shemini Atzeret is mentioned in only verses 36 and 39.
The Hebrew word shemini means eighth. This refers to the date of Shemini Atzeret relative to Sukkot; it falls on the latter's eighth day. It is often assumed that Shemini Atzeret is simply the eighth day of Sukkot. That characterization, however, is only partly accurate.
The celebration of Sukkot is characterized by the use of the sukkah and the Four Species. However, the Torah specifies using those objects for only seven days, not eight. The observance of Shemini Atzeret, therefore, differs in substantial ways from that of Sukkot. The Talmud describes Shemini Atzeret with the words "a holiday in its own right".
The Talmud describes six ways in which Shemini Atzeret differs from Sukkot. Four of these relate principally to the Temple service, but two others remain relevant to the modern celebration of the holiday. First, the blessing known as Shehecheyanu is recited on the night of Shemini Atzeret just as it is on the first night of all other major Jewish holidays. Second, the holiday is referred to distinctively as "Shemini Atzeret" and not as "Sukkot" in the prayer service.
Immediately following that discussion, however, the Talmud describes Shemini Atzeret as the "end holiday of the festival ". The context here is that the Sukkot obligations of joy and recitation of Hallel last eight days. This is also why one of Sukkot's liturgical aliases, "Time of Our Happiness", continues to be used to describe Shemini Atzeret—and, by extension, Simchat Torah—in the liturgy.
Shemini Atzeret is, in conclusion, simultaneously "a holiday in its own right" and the "end holiday of ".

''Atzeret:'' A day for assembly—or pause

Spiritually, Shemini Atzeret can also be seen to "guard the seven days of Sukkot". The Hebrew word atzeret is generally translated as "assembly", but shares a linguistic root with the word atzor, meaning "stop" or "tarry". Shemini Atzeret is characterized as a day when the Jewish People "tarries" to spend an additional day with God at the end of Sukkot. Rashi cites the parable of a king who invites his sons to dine with him for a number of days, but when the time comes for them to leave, he asks them to stay for another day, since it is difficult for him to part from them. According to this idea, Sukkot is a universal holiday, but Shemini Atzeret is for only the Jewish People. Moreover, Shemini Atzeret is a modest holiday intended to honor special relationship with his beloved nation.
A different but related interpretation is offered by Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg, who translates atzeret as "retain": "During the holiday season, we have experienced a heightened religious fervor and a most devout spirit. This last day is devoted to a recapitulation of the message of these days, with the hope that it will be retained the rest of the year".

Connections to the prior Jewish holy days

The day before Shemini Atzeret is the last day of Sukkot. It is called Hoshana Rabbah and is unique and different from the other days of Sukkot. While it is part of the "intermediate" days of Sukkot known as Chol HaMoed, Hoshana Rabbah has extra prayers and rituals and is treated and practised much more seriously and festively than are the previous days of Chol HaMoed. In particular, during the morning prayer service of Hoshana Rabbah, there are seven hoshanot with their own seven hakafot or "seven processions". That sets the stage for the ritual, mood, tenor, and heightened sense of festivity for the days that follow it—namely, of Shemini Atzeret when seven hakafot are again performed. The hakafot of Shemini Atzeret are the same as those used in the Simchat Torah celebration, which is observed in Israel in tandem with Shemini Atzeret. Outside the Land of Israel, the hakafot are performed by some congregations on the evening preceding Shemini Atzeret, and then by all on both the night and during the day of Simchat Torah.
The Jewish Encyclopedia states that during the time of the Second Temple, the festival of Shavuot received the specific name of "'Atzarta" as cited by Josephus in Antiquities of the Jews and in the Talmud's tractate Pesahim, signifying "the closing feast" of Passover. Commenting on this, the Rabbis in Tractate Pesahim say that:

The closing feast of Sukkot ought rightly to have been, like that of Passover on the fiftieth day, but, in order not to force the people to make another journey to Jerusalem in the rainy season, God fixed it as early as the eighth day.

Shemini Atzeret thus concludes the process of judgment, repentance, and atonement begun on Rosh Hashanah: the Jewish New Year. Four days after the conclusion of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, Sukkot begins and is regarded as the celebration of the anticipated Divine "good judgment" that was, religious Jews hope, granted while observing the High Holy Days. Hoshana Rabbah, Shemini Atzeret, and Simchat Torah then culminate the process with open celebration and festivity with joyous prayers, festive meals, and dancing, with the Torah scrolls held as the center of attention during the hakafot in the synagogue.

Evolution of observances and customs

The Torah explicitly mentions Shemini Atzeret three times, all in the context of Sukkot. Only two observances are specified for Shemini Atzeret. One relates to the Temple service, and is not relevant to modern observance. The other is the avoidance of "servile labor" , as on other major Jewish holidays. ' No other specific rituals or ritual objects are specified, making Shemini Atzeret unique in that regard among the festivals mentioned in the Torah.
Two observances of Shemini Atzeret are mentioned in the Prophets and Writings portions of the Tanakh. The first occurred at the time of the dedication of the First Temple by Solomon. The second came at the time of the Jews' return from the Babylonian exile. In both cases, however, the mention is limited to the observation that an "assembly ' was held on the eighth day".
According to the Apocryphal Second Book of Maccabees, the first celebration of Hanukkah mimicked that of Sukkot, which the Maccabees and their followers had been unable to celebrate earlier that year. However, the only allusion to Shemini Atzeret in that narrative is that the Hanukkah celebration was fixed for eight days—in remembrance of both the seven days of Sukkot and the additional day of Shemini Atzeret.
File:Simhat Torah 17th century.jpg|thumb|Throwing cakes to children on Simḥat Torah, by Johann Leusden in Philologus Hebræo-Mixtus, Utrecht, 1657
Like most Jewish holidays of Biblical origin, Shemini Atzeret is observed for one day within the Land of Israel, and traditionally for two days outside Israel. Reform and Reconstructionist communities generally celebrate this and most Biblical holidays for one day, even outside Israel. The second day observed outside Israel is called Simchat Torah.

Simchat Torah

The practice of reading the Ve-zot ha-berakhah, the last of the weekly Torah portions on Shemini Atzeret is documented in the Talmud. That Talmudic source does not refer to the occasion as "Simchat Torah", but simply as Shemini Atzeret, and it is also not clear from that source if it is read as the last Torah portion or as a special Festival reading.
The Simchat Torah celebration of today is of later rabbinic and customary origin. The day is mentioned in the siddur of Rav Amram Gaon ; the assignment of the first chapter of Joshua as the haftarah of the day is mentioned there. The reading of the first section of Genesis immediately upon the conclusion of the last section of Deuteronomy—as well as the name "Simchat Torah"—can be found in the 14th century halachic work Arba'ah Turim. By the 16th century CE, most of the features of the modern celebration of Simchat Torah were in place in some form. The Simchat Torah celebration is now the most distinctive feature of this festival—so much so that in the Land of Israel, where Shemini Atzeret lasts only one day, it is more common to refer to the day as "Simchat Torah" than as "Shemini Atzeret".
In the 20th century, Simchat Torah came to symbolize the public assertion of Jewish identity. The Jews of the Soviet Union, in particular, would celebrate the festival en masse in the streets of Moscow. On October 14, 1973, more than 100,000 Jews took part in a post-Simchat Torah rally in New York city on behalf of refuseniks and Soviet Jewry. Dancing in the street with the Torah has become part of the holiday's ritual in various Jewish congregations in the United States as well. In Israel, many communities conduct Hakafot shniyot, or "Second hakafot", on the day after Shemini Atzeret. In part, this shows solidarity with Jewish communities outside Israel, which are still celebrating Simchat Torah. At the same time, it allows for a Simchat Torah celebration unconstrained by festival work restrictions, since the festival is over in Israel according to Jewish law.
Outside Israel, where Shemini Atzeret is observed for two days, Simchat Torah is deferred to the second day, when all agree there is no obligation of sukkah.