What is Shmini Atzeret about, anyway?

• Author: rabbi Steven Schwarzman
• Published date: 27 September 2021
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Shmini Atzeret is a holiday that, like Dangerfield, doesn't get much respect. It's not like Passover, with the Seder and the matzah. It's not like Sukkot, the holiday that it immediately follows, with the mitzvot of dwelling in the sukkah and waving the lulav and etrog.

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Shmini Atzeret doesn't get much respect because we struggle to know what to make of it. Of course, it's a Biblical holiday just as much as those other days. But there's not much specific to Shmini Atzeret; the Torah simply says that we are to assemble on this day – without saying what we should do once we assemble. Liturgically, it is on Shmini Atzeret that the first mention of rain in prayers is introduced, as recorded in the Talmud's tractate Taanit, because this is when the rainy season begins in Israel.

Shmini Atzeret and its better-known twin, Simhat Torah, are combined into one day in Israel. In the Diaspora, they are observed separately, with one day devoted to each.

Simhat Torah is when we finish one annual cycle of reading the Torah and begin the next. It's a spirited and fun holiday for adults and for kids, and everyone present receives an aliyah to the Torah after fervent dancing and singing.

Of course, Simhat Torah, developing over time from the medieval period, is really nothing other than the second day of Shmini Atzeret, since all Biblical holidays aside from Yom Kippur are observed an extra day in the Diaspora.

Normally, the memorial prayer of Yizkor is recited on the last day of these holidays. In the Diaspora, where the second and last day of Shmini Atzeret is that wild and fun Simhat Torah, when it wouldn't fit, we move Yizkor to Shmini Atzeret. Normally, Shmini Atzeret wouldn't even get that.

Truly a holiday without respect...until we consider a midrash in the Talmud's tractate Sukkah that explains what Shmini Atzeret is all about, long before Simhat Torah was conceived.

The Torah enumerates the grand scope of the sacrifices for the seven days of Sukkot during Temple times: on the first day, no fewer than 13 bulls were offered, along with two rams, 14 lambs, and the meal offerings that went with each, plus a goat, a burnt offering, another meal offering, and a libation.

The next day, 12 bulls plus all the rest were offered. The day after, 11 bulls plus all the rest. And so on, through the end of Sukkot, making an astounding quantity of sacrifices, including 70 bulls.

The midrash notices this number, and says it is no coincidence. The 70 bulls correspond to...