The holiday of Sukot is ending. The last day of the holiday has a special name- Hoshana Raba, the Great Supplication. (This started last night and ends tonight.) It is the last day of the days of judgement; the days that started on the first day of Elul some 50 days ago. (Yes, that is the same number of days that separates Pesach [Passover] and Shvuot [The Feast of Weeks].)
We have a bunch of fun rituals for this holiday- and one that may seem like fun, but it’s deeper than that.
We go around the shul 7 times (it IS the 7th day of Sukot), singing praises to Hashem. Waving our lulav (palm fronds, with myrtle and willow branches) and etrog to the music. We are praying for Hashem to close the books on our judgment, to provide us with a wonderful year.
The very next day (Tuesday) is yet another major holiday. Shmini Atzeret- the 8th day of Assembly. There’s no real information about this holiday in the Tora (or almost anywhere else). Besides work being prohibited, and the prayer for rain (Geshem) in the land of Israel, there’s not much else. (It is the start of the rainy season in Israel, and we are hoping for plentiful crops. When Pesach [Passover] rolls around, and the rainy season is over, we pray for dew (Tal).)
This holiday, Shmini Atzeret, has another observance. We Jewish folks read the Tora each week. And, this is the day that the cycle is completed- we read the very last words of the Tora and immediately start anew at Breishit (Genesis). So, we call this additional celebration, Simchat Tora (The Celebration of the Tora.)
May this new cycle bring you everything you need- but especially health, happiness, and peace.
