This evening marks the start of a most unusual holiday.  From my point of view, it’s pretty cool- because it means this season of almost endless holiday’s ends- until April.  (Whew!   Now, I can finally be making some money!)

But, this holiday, decreed from way back when, has little description in the Tora.  It’s simply called the Eighth Day of Assembly (Shmini Atzeret) in the bible.

Some folks consider it the eighth day of Sukot (the holiday I discussed a week ago).  My family never considered that definition correct.  We stop eating in Suka as soon as this day began. (Note:  The Tora says, “It was evening, it was morning”;  all “days” actually begin in the evening.)

This is simply a new holiday.  And, the only requirement that exists for this holiday is that we celebrate life and our religion.

Of course, we also add a special prayer to our service today- It’s called Geshem or the Prayer for Rain.   It’s the start of the rainy season in Israel, which is why these prayers ask the Supreme Being to ensure that there is sufficient rain afforded for plentiful crops.  (On Passover, we substitute this prayer for one of Dew, since the rainy season ends at that time of year.)

Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch, a rabbi from about 200 years ago,  thought this holiday requires us to gather up all our gratitude, our attention to the Supreme Being, because it IS the last holiday in our season of holidays (this month had the celebrations of  Rosh Hashana, Yom Kipur, and Sukot- and Sunday is only the 22nd day of the month of Tishrei) until next April.

Besides the mention in the Tora, the Tanach (the entire bible) has two mentions of this holiday.  When Shlomo (King Solomon) finally has built the first Great Temple, it’s dedication occurs today.  And, the Babylonian exile, after the Jews were banished from the land of Israel, this holiday marked the day of the return to the holy land.

It also coincides with another holiday observance called Simchat Tora.  (This is a celebration we created- one not detailed in the Tora.) We normally  read from the Tora (the bible), the Five Books of Moses [the first five books of the bible] every week.  On this holiday, we have completed the cycle of reading all five books, with its description of the death of Moses- and immediately begin reading from the very first part of the bible, the story of creation.

May this new cycle bring you everything you need- but especially health, happiness, and peace.