Wrapping up what, for Jews, is a more than three-week long holiday (holy day) season, we are tonight easing out of Succot and into Shemini Atzeret. It's not always that easy to keep these holidays straight, and so a few years ago, I decided to try to spell it out for my own benefit and that of others similarly bewildered. Here it is again:
I've always found this holiday a bit confusing because, depending on how you look at it and where you look at it from, it lasts either seven, eight or nine days. So Succot itself lasts seven days, followed immediately by the separate but connected holy day of Shemini Atzeret (Eighth Day Feast). The day after Shemini Atzeret is yet another holy day called Simchat Torah (Rejoicing in the Torah). In Israel, Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah are celebrated on the same day, so that the entire holiday period lasts eight days. Everywhere else, it lasts nine days. Is this fun, or what?
Simchat Torah is, indeed, a very fun holiday. It's one of two (the other is Purim) on which it's actually considered a mitzva to drink (as in alcohol). And there's a lot of dancing and singing, as well. It's also the day when we finish up the Torah-reading cycle for the year, roll the whole thing back to the beginning and start all over again. Cool stuff.
Shabbat Shalom.
Chag Sameach.
