Shmini Atzeret

Today we face a halachic crisis.

Over the Yamim Noraim our task was clear, we had reached the pinnacle point of spirituality and were devoting a day exclusively to bonding with Hashem. Over Sukkot, we knew what we needed to do. As we discussed, our goal then was to allow our spiritual gains to manifest into physical mitzvot. We spent a week celebrating a chag with more mitzvot than any other, that requires using our entire bodies to perform those mitzvot.

And now, finally, we reached Shmini Atzeret, a day with no unique mitzva and no clear purpose. The midrash describes how Hashem told the Jewish people, קשה עלי פרידתכם. After spending so much time with me over the Yamim Noraim and Sukkot, give me one more day, just one more, to enjoy each other’s company.

So how do we celebrate that special day? The unique day that God specifically requested of us because קשה עלי פרידתכם. Here in חוץ לארץ we do something quite strange. As we consistently face the issues of ספק יום, and always celebrate two days of chag instead of one, on Shmini Atzeret we become completely confused. On the one hand, we are celebrating a new chag so we say שהחיינו. On the other, we are unsure if it is still Sukkot so we sit in the Sukkah. On one side, we don’t make a bracha to sit in the Sukkah. But on the other, the karban mussaf we recite is the one exclusively for Shmini Atzeret.

We are faced with conflict upon conflict; a true halachic crisis. And THIS is the day we chose for קשה עלי פרידתכם? On the day God told us he wants us to sit with him just one more day we give Him a migraine?

I believe, that quite obviously, this is exactly the point. On Shmini Atzeret when we were supposed to go back to our regular lives after six weeks focused exclusively on avodat hashem, we face contradiction after contradiction. Our halachic lives demand facing and embracing these contradictions.

If a little bit of milk falls into a pot of chicken soup, can we still eat it? What if the pot was originally dairy but hadn’t been used in 24 hours? What if we fried the onions with only minimal oil in a meat pan first? These questions are just a small look at our complicated halachic lives. The issues span from how we eat to how we face difficult ethical questions. We do not hide our religious lives up in a building on top of a mountain. Our religious lives define who we are as we embrace the world around us.

And that is what we celebrate on the day of קשה עלי פרידתכם. Leaving a time of year exclusively focused on worshiping Hashem is difficult, but has well prepared us for facing any seeming conflict that may arise the rest of the year.

This is also the reason I believe we recite yizkor today. The nature of the day of Yom Kippur demanded reciting Yizkor. But why repeat yizkor specifically today? I believe it is exactly the same point. Yizkor is not simply an opportunity to remember those who passed but allows a moment to sit and contemplate those who came before us. To appreciate their lives and how they too faced halachic contradictions and embraced them. How they too allowed for spiritualty to inform their day to day lives.

And so, today, before we start Yizkor let us decide together to accomplish one new goal this year. Let us not allow the spiritual gains we made over the past few weeks go to waste. As we are about to renew the cycle reading the Torah, let us together decide to do at least part of the mitzva of שנים מקרא ואחד תרגום. Pick your favorite commentary and before we read the Torah together on Shabbat, throughout the week, set some time to read at least one aliya’s worth of material. Imagine how much more meaningful our kriyat hatorah can be if we walk in just a little more prepared.