From the Desk of Cheryl Hauer
I
t’s hard to believe that the High Holidays are nearly over for another year. It seems like yesterday that we were anticipating Elul with its introspection, making sure our accounts were in order. Now, the new year is upon us. We have reconciled during the Days of Awe, repented on Yom Kippur and are rejoicing in our Sukkah, looking up at the stars and thanking our Father for a love so great that He longs to spend time with us.
Very soon, it will be Shemini Atzeret. The words mean “the eighth day of assembly,” and it marks the end of Sukkot. In the Diaspora, it is followed by a second day called Simchat Torah, but in Israel both are celebrated on the eighth day. There is a lovely story the rabbis tell to explain the importance of Shemini Atzeret. It goes like this:
Once there was a very rich man who had many children. He loved his family very much and his children grew up in a very warm and happy environment. The man enjoyed nothing more than spending time with them, talking, laughing, playing games…being together. But as they reached adulthood, one by one, they moved on. The daughters married and left to live with their husbands in other kingdoms; the sons had careers of their own taking them to distant places with little time to spare for visits home.
In his longing to see them, the father had an idea. He sent a message to each child, telling them that he had set aside one week, seven days, to spend only with them. He would pay for their journeys and take care of all their needs if they would return home for these seven days. He promised a time of joy and laughter, love and reconnecting with gifts abounding. One by one, each child responded, accepting their father’s invitation.
At last, the time arrived and the children all made their way home. And they were not disappointed! Their father had spared nothing in preparing a wonderful week with the best of their favorite foods, banquets and games, intimate times of sharing, laughing and crying together. As the end of the week drew near, the father gathered his family together and with tears, asked them for just one more day…”You have filled my heart with such joy for these last days and I can barely stand the thought of the seventh day. So my children, I plead with you for just one more day.”
The children who had loved the time with their father agreed. And so the seventh day came and went and the eighth day was filled with even more joy, with the children filled with gratitude for all that their father had done for them. Alas, on the ninth day, they left, one by one, for their homes. But this time, they departed with promises to be in touch more often, to remember their father and his goodness, but best of all, to return the next year for another seven days plus one.
That is the story of Shemini Atzeret, of our Father who in His passionate love, gave us Sukkot to spend with Him in intimate rejoicing. But He knows what will happen when the week ends and the distractions of life draw us away from Him yet again. And so He asks for just one more day…
Blessings and Shalom,
Issachar Community