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Confused About Shemini Atzeret?
Us Too: The ‘Hybrid Holiday’ Explained
L OCA L
SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
SCHRÖDINGER’S CAT is
a thought experiment used in
quantum mechanics that —
without getting into the hairy
details — consists of a cat in
a box becoming radioactively
poisoned and, upon one opening
the box, the cat is found to be,
paradoxically, both dead and
alive. The Jewish holiday of Shemini
Atzeret, sandwiched between
Sukkot and Simchat Torah, has
nothing to do with radioactive
cats or quantum mechanics, but
it’s an anomaly in its own right:
“It’s a hybrid holiday,”
said Rabbi Eliezer Hirsch of
Mekor Habracha/Center City
Synagogue in Philadelphia.

Shemini Atzeret is both its
own holiday and an extension
of the holiday of Sukkot and the
preface to Simchat Torah.

“In the Torah, we’re told to
have a sacred congregation, a
gathering, on the eighth day of
Sukkot,” Congregation Beth
Tikvah Rabbi Nathan Weiner
said. In Hebrew, “shemini” means
eight, and “atzeret” means
assembly. The holiday is first
mentioned in Leviticus 23:36
and, according to a midrash, is
a way to linger in God’s presence
following the intensity of the
weeks of the High Holidays.

“We have spent so much time
with God and in synagogues
over the last couple of weeks,”
said Rabbi Yonah Gross of
Congregation Beth Hamedrosh
in Wynnewood. “Before we head
back to our lives, Hashem says,
‘I want to spend one more day
with you.’”
Celebrated on the 22nd of
Tishrei in Israel or the 22nd
and 23rd of Tishrei elsewhere,
Shemini Atzeret, in short, is
a celebration that acts as the
transition from Sukkot to
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM Shemini Atzeret is both a
standalone holiday and connected
to Sukkot and Simchat Torah.

Rabbi Nathan Weiner
Courtesy of Getty Images
Courtesy of Nathan Weiner
Simchat Torah.

Like most concepts in
Judaism, however, the simple
explanation is not necessarily
the most satisfying one, and it
certainly doesn’t account for
why Shemini Atzeret remains a
lesser-known Jewish holiday.

The holiday is a Yom Tov, a
festival day, where one refrains
from using technology like
on Shabbat. During Shemini
Atzeret one can — but doesn’t
have to — dine in the sukkah;
however, it’s not necessary to
say a blessing, shake the lulav
and etrog, eat a specific food or
complete certain ritual practices.

“There’s not a very clear,
tangible meaning that people
can grab onto,” Weiner said.

Shemini Atzeret
is observed differently based on
one’s geography and Judaic
movement, making the holiday’s
ritual practices even harder to
pin down.

In Israel, as well as in the
Reform and Reconstructionist
movements, Shemini Atzeret is
a one-day celebration that also
combines Simchat Torah.

In the Orthodox and
Conservative movements
outside of Israel, Shemini Atzeret
is a two-day affair.

Yet Weiner tacks an asterisk
onto this idea.

“It’s where you live, not
where you are” that determines
if your celebration is one or two
days. If you’re in Israel but are a
Conservative Jew from the U.S.,
you’d celebrate the holiday for
seasons but is said at the end of
Sukkot to make sure that rain
doesn’t fall while we’re dwelling
in a sukkah and eating outside.

And like most every Jewish
holiday, Shemini Atzeret blends
joy and grief, as it is another
opportunity for Yizkor, the
memorial service, following
Yom Kippur, Hirsch said.

If Jews can figure out how to
find harmony in the seeming
contradiction of celebration and
mourning, then we are certainly
capable of deciphering the
meaning of a holiday that both
stands on its own and is inter-
twined with others. Besides, it’s
got to be easier to understand
than quantum mechanics. l
Repairs Continued from Page 4
and plaster and Sheetrock,”
Chambers said. “The fact that it
was an older building helped us.”
Despite the building’s solid
foundation, flooding damage
was inevitable, Chambers said.

Storms such as Ida aren’t
seen on the North East Coast
as frequently or with as much
severity as in the Southeast. Had
Ida been a better-predicted and
less-severe storm, Chambers
would have stacked sandbags
around the building to limit water
from entering the basement.

But given the level of
unexpected rainfall, trying to
prepare for the storm was futile.

“It was just bad luck,”
Chambers said. “I would never
say ‘never,’ but I doubt we’ll see
something like this again.” l
two days, despite being in an
area that celebrates for just one.

To make matters more
complicated, Simchat Torah
is not a biblical holiday like
Shemini Atzeret and Sukkot are,
meaning it was developed by
rabbis and is not in the Torah.

The two-day celebration of the
holiday was likewise created srogelberg@jewishexponent.com; srogelberg@jewishexponent.com;
rabbinically, largely for practical 215-832-0741
215-832-0741 reasons.

Outside of Israel, several
holidays, such as Passover,
consist of two-day celebrations,
instead of one in Israel, to create
a larger margin of error for the
lunar calendar.

“The calendar needed to be
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But regardless of how or
where one is celebrating Shemini
Atzeret, there are a few rituals
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that are the same across the
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we add the prayer for geshem,
rain, to the Shemona Esrei or
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to Jewish practice. This is not
only added on Shemini Atzeret
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JEWISH EXPONENT
SEPTEMBER 23, 2021
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