Part III: Simchat Torah Points the Way for the Diaspora
As a rabbi, and one obsessed with Baruch Spinoza’s severance of the theological from the political, I found myself during the close of our Holiday Season desperately trying to understand the nature of, and difference between, Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah.
To be forthright, growing up at Scarsdale Synagogue Tremont Temple, I never heard of Shemini Atzeret, and when I first learned about it living in Jerusalem in the early aughts, most of what I was told is: “it’s basically Sukkot.” That’s fair, but, what I learned is that Shemini Atzeret’s glory is its call for rain in the Land of Israel, a place on earth with no great rivers like the Nile or Euphrates to irrigate crops – a place that is utterly dependent on rain from the skies, a rain that falls only between the months of October and April.
My fixation on the distinction between Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah took on a theologico-political significance after the 10/7 attack. In the Diaspora, all holidays – save Rosh Hashana – are one-day holidays extended to two days. Simchat Torah is, in fact, day two of Shemini Atzeret, so, while October 7, 2023 was both Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah in Israel, here in the United States, and around the world, we celebrated Simchat Torah the following day, Sunday.
In the synagogue this past Sunday (Simchat Torah), I listened to the Haftarah being read, and my fixation with the distinction between the two found resolution.
The Haftarah is the opening chapter of the Book of Joshua, and the phrase “be strong and courageous” occurs four times. I marveled at the paradox that a Scriptural passage about entering the Promised Land, the Land of Israel, is read only in the Diaspora, while those who live in the Land of Israel never read this passage in the synagogue (for Shemini Atzeret is Simchat Torah, and its Haftarah gains precedence.)
What I said yesterday about epigenetic trauma and suppression, I realized, was not true – had never been true – for Israelis. Although the 10/7 attack was the deadliest single day for Jews since the end of World War II and the Holocaust in 1945, Israelis have encountered the threat of annihilation and the viciousness of wanton murder every year since Israel’s founding. Because they are prepared, they regularly meet the challenge. The epigenetic trauma is present, but the act of suppression cannot obtain.
The Israelis win every war, but they are denied the ability to make the peace. Now, that the war against the Jews is once again globalized, the message for the Diaspora is clarion: be prepared; be strong and courageous.