Lingering at the Banquet
This evening, we move not only into Shabbat, but also into chag (holiday) mode, for the final time this season, as we begin Shemini Atzeret.
Shemini Atzeret is a biblical holiday -- as we see in Leviticus 23:36:
בַּיּ֣וֹם הַשְּׁמִינִ֡י מִקְרָא־קֹ֩דֶשׁ֩ יִהְיֶ֨ה לָכֶ֜ם וְהִקְרַבְתֶּ֨ם אִשֶּׁ֤ה לַֽיהֹוָה עֲצֶ֣רֶת הִ֔וא
"On the eighth day, you should observe a sacred occasion and bring an offering by fire to GOD; it is a solemn gathering..."
On the bolded phrase above, Rashi comments:
עצרת הוא — The word is derived from the root עצר (atzar) “to hold back” and suggests: I keep you back with Me one day more. This is analogous to the case of a king who invited his children to a banquet for a certain number of days. When the time arrived for them to take their departure he said, “Children, I beg of you, linger for one more day with me; it is so hard for me to part with you!”
This midrashic interpretation provides a lovely explanation of this holiday. According to Rashi, Shemini Atzeret is cast as an intimate after-party: a chance for God and the Jewish people to linger for a little longer in one another's presence. Although the king's invitation is the primary focus of the text, it's easy to imagine that the children aren't particularly eager to leave the banquet either. In this analogy, Shemini Atzeret thus serves as our capstone to the holiday of Sukkot and perhaps to the whole of our intensive fall holiday season -- an extra day (or two*) for us to dwell together with God, to sit with our feelings and integrate the intense experiences we've just come through, to take our time before gradually moving back into our daily lives.
Educators have long understood that giving students time to reflect at the end of a learning session can enhance learning outcomes. At Kavana's High Holidays, through experimentation over time, we've settled into a pattern whereby art, writing, and/or discussion sessions take place towards the end of our biggest Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur days; these sessions provide community members who want it the opportunity to linger in reflective space, where sitting with our emotions and sharing them with others in intimate space allows for integration and enhances the meaning of these holidays. Shemini Atzeret provides precisely this type of opportunity for the fall holiday season as a whole.
In addition to being able to reflect on the work of the High Holidays before leaving it behind, I am also feeling a particular need to slow down in this way -- to linger and reflect and try to find my bearings -- as we approach the three-year anniversary of October 7, 2023 (which also corresponds to Shemini Atzeret on the Jewish calendar). Without a doubt, the past three years have been dramatic ones for the worldwide Jewish community -- years that historians of the future will look back on as a watershed chapter for our people. We're still so much inside the swirl of this chapter that it's hard to fully make sense of it all yet, but we can and should try to slow down and sit with our (many, varied) feelings about what it is to be Jewish -- both in America and in the world -- right now. The horrors of that October day three years ago are still so palpable for me that I felt myself back there -- gripped in a similar way -- reading about what transpired earlier this week on FlyDubai flight #1073. This anniversary of October 7th will be the first one in which there are no Israeli hostages inside Gaza (as the final body was just returned in January of this year). In addition to our own pain, we are also sitting with the mass destruction of Gaza, tens of thousands of Palestinian deaths, and the continued unraveling of day-to-day life in the occupied West Bank. Over the past three years, Israel's reputation in the world has shifted rapidly, and we -- members of the American Jewish community -- sit with the consequences of that every day. This is a gut-wrenching time; it certainly doesn't feel easy or light to be a Jew at this moment in history. Although we're still too much "in it" to fully understand, integrate and meaning-make about this chapter, I do appreciate the invitation to "linger at the banquet" for a little extra time.. to slow down and sit with this swirl in an intentional way.
If you're looking for opportunities to be in community as we engage in this week's purposeful pause, here are several invitations:
Please join us in a cozy, local community setting as we close out Kavana's fall holiday season together! Our Simchat Torah* celebration will take place tomorrow/Saturday evening, from 7:30-9:30pm. We'll sing and dance with our two(!) Sifrei Torah to 7 hakafot, each with a theme introduced by Kavana partners; we'll also chant from the very end and the very beginning of the Torah, as we start our new Torah reading cycle anew! Both Kavana rabbis will be in attendance, plus Chava Mirel and her band will be playing live music. If you'd like to join us but haven't registered yet, please do so ASAP so we can get the details to you this afternoon -- we know it'll feel great to be together! (*Shemini Atzeret & Simchat Torah are celebrated as a single day in Israel and in the Reform movement, and as two separate days in more traditional diaspora Jewish communities. Here at Kavana, we're stretching it out to make a whole weekend of pause...)
Mark the October 7th anniversary by attending a commemorative event online, co-presented by the New Israel Fund and the Parents Circle - Families Forum. The event description reads: "Three Years after October 7 and the War in Gaza: Honoring Our Shared Pain and Humanity. This October 7, we mark three years since the day the earth moved beneath our feet. To honor this devastating day, we invite you to hear directly from two bereaved family members, one Israeli and one Palestinian, both members of the Parent's Circle Families Forum. Together, they will share their stories of loss and survival, as well as their hopes for the future. The event will also feature introductory remarks by Idit Klein, VP of Public Engagement at NIF, and will be moderated by Shiri Ourian, Executive Director of the American Friends of the Parents Circle." Tuesday, Oct 6 at 10am Pacific Time. Click here to register.
As I said above, for many in our community, art is a great modality for reflection and integration. Next week, the Jewish Studio Project and Sefaria are providing a free, online opportunity to do precisely this: "Have You Made Art About it Yet? Bereishit Edition with Rabbi Adina Allen. Explore the power of art-making as a tool for personal and collective renewal." Thursday, Oct. 8, 9:00-10:30am. Click here to register.
In whatever way(s) you choose to mark this time, I hope you will experience the coming days as a helpful capstone to this year's High Holidays, and take some time to slow down and reflect on the work you've done in this season and where we are at this complex moment in Jewish history. The invitation to "linger for one more day at God's banquet" -- that is, to take our time and exit this season slowly -- is a gift, and we should strive to take full advantage of this precious opportunity.
Wishing you a slow and gentle weekend, filled with reflection, community, and meaning.
Chag sameach,
Rabbi Rachel Nussbaum
