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Synagogue Sermon

October 16, 1976

A Simple Farewell (1976)

Shemini Atzeret & Simchat Torah
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Life, Livelihood, and Living (1967)

Shemini Atzeret marks the end of the period of judgment. Be’rosh Hashanah yikatevun, u-ve’yom tzom kippur yehatemun – on Rosh Hashanah, God’s decree is inscribed in the Book of Judgment, and on Yom Kippur it is sealed. But, according to our tradition, there is yet one more period for final appeal, that from Yom Kippur to Hoshanah Rabbah, known as the Yom ha-hotem ha-gadol, the day of the great or final seal. All those cases which remain doubtful on Yom Kippur, those people whose repentance is still in question, have yet these extra few days until Hoshanah Rabbah, which we celebrated yesterday, to mend their ways and to determine the course of the year for themselves. Thus, Shemini Atzeret is the end of this complex period of introspection and judgment during which the question of life is determined: mi yihyeh u-mi yamut, “who shall live and who (Heaven forbid) shall die.”And yet, surprisingly, the Sages did not consider the rest of the year judgment-free. They did not restrict the activity of divine judgment only to this High Holiday season. The Talmud (R.H.16a) records two opinions. R. Yossi maintains that Adam nidon be’khol yom, man is judged every single day. R. Nathan goes even further: Adam nidon be’khol shaah, man is judged every hour.But if man is judged every hour, why every day? And if every day, why every year?A most interesting answer is to be found in the Jerusalem Talmud, which reconciles all opinions by telling us that Adam nidon be’khol yom refers to parnasah, that our judgment every day refers to our livelihood; whereas Adam nidon be’khol shaah refers to akhilah, that we are judged every hour on the fact of our eating.What does this mean? What is the difference between parnasah and akhilah, between livelihood and eating or living?It means this. There are three kinds of judgment to which man is subject: on the High Holidays, he is judged for his hayyim, Life – whether he shall survive or not. Be’khol yom, every day, he is judged on his parnasah, his …
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Reworking the Past (1975)

Last week, I met a man whom I had not seen for six or seven years. I recognized him, but I did not recognize him. I was puzzled. Then I realized the source of my confusion: he had grown a beard in the interim. Because of the beard, I did not recognize him, and because of the beard I did recognize him. The reason for this was because he now looked startlingly like his late father!In discussing this with him, I appreciated his inner feelings. He thought to himself: I am now a mature man, and spent a good part of my life carving out for myself my own life, my own personality, my own niche. Now I want to recapture my father’s image and make it my own, not only psychologically and spiritually but, if at all possible, even physically.This otherwise unimportant encounter brought to my mind the problem of two forces that strive for supremacy within each of us: continuity vs. discontinuity, rootedness in the past vs. innovation and novelty, reverence for the old vs. the search for the new. In Hebrew we might refer to these as המשך (continuity) vs. חידוש (innovation). This phenomenon is well-nigh universal.It is in this sense that I consider Shemini Atzeret a metaphor for man. For Shemini Atzeret, according to the Halakhah, has a rather hybrid nature. In one sense, it is merely a continuation of the Sukkot holiday, of which it is the eighth day. In another sense, it is an independent and autonomous holiday in its own right. Thus, the Halakhah teaches that in all ways it is part of Sukkot, except for six laws – represented by the acrostic פז״ר קש״ב – in which it is חג בפני עצמו, a holiday by itself. Hence, like the eighth day of Passover, there is no special mitzvah of appearing in the Temple, as there is on the three pilgrim festivals. And in this sense it is merely the end of Sukkot. But unlike Passover, we recite the שהחיינו on Shemini Atzeret, because it is a holiday in its own right. Thus too, we can understand the two different versions of the name for this festival as …
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Which Way the Wind Blows (1966)

The distinguishing feature of every Jewish holiday is simhah, joy or happiness. The Torah commands us: Ve’hayita akh sameiah, “And thou shalt be altogether joyful!” Now, while this particular commandment is included in the Torah’s legislation of the festival of Sukkot, there is no reason to restrict it to that holiday. Indeed, the mitzvah of simhah applies to every holiday. It is somewhat astonishing, therefore, to discover that the Talmud finds it necessary to apply the requirement of simhah specifically to the present holiday, that of shemini atzeret. Thus the Talmud (Sukkah, 48a) says: le’rabot leilei yom tov ha-aharon le’simhah, that the commandment to be happy on the holiday includes not only the first days of Sukkot, but the last days – which means shemini atzeret – as well. (What makes this Talmudic statement even more surprising is the fact that the word akh, as in ve’hayita akh sameiah, is usually understood le’ma’et, to be exclusive; that is the word akh or “only” usually means to restrict what follows. In this case, however, the Talmud understands it in the reverse: le’rabot, you must be happy not only on the first day of the holiday, but le’rabot, it must be inclusive and extend to the last holiday as well). Why the necessity for emphasizing simhah even on atzeret? Perhaps we can understand it by a story that the Talmud elsewhere (Yoma 21b) tells of a popular custom that used to take place as soon as the entire Sukkot holiday, including shemini atzeret, was over and done with. People would gather about the Temple, and ha-kol tzafin le’ashan ha-maarakhah – everyone would peer intently at the column of smoke that would rise from the altar, where the logs were burning so as to provide a source of fire for the sacrificial service. As the column of smoke rose, all eyes would be glued to it, to see which way the wind would blow it. If the column would blow to the north, then the poor were happy and the well-to-do farmers were sad, for a north wind indicated t…
Shemini Atzeret & Simchat Torah