• Home
    • Our Vision & Mission
    • About Reconstructionism
    • Meet the Team
  • Youth & Families
    • School Mission Statement
  • Our Programs
    • High Holy Days 2019/5780 >
      • High Holidays Worship Services
      • Children's Services for High Holidays
      • Youth Services for High Holidays
      • Spiritual Preparation for the High Holidays
      • Break the Fast
      • More Holidays
    • Bagels and Books
    • Israel Connections and Jewish Affairs
    • Israel Forum Series
    • Soulful Shabbat
    • Lunch and Learn with Rabbi Lina
    • Rosh Chodesh at Kehillath Shalom Synagogue
  • Support KSS
  • Coming Events
  • Blog
  • Contact Us
Picture

Shemini Atzeret - A Sacred Gathering 2018

9/25/2018

1 Comment

 
Picture
Monday, October 1st - 10am at the shul
But what IS Shemini Atzeret?

Here's what Ritualwell has to say about it:

"Our ancestors did not want Sukkot to end, so they added an extra day to this festival—one more day to linger over the joys the holiday offered. Our celebrations look quite different now, but we too appreciate this day—and the special prayers for rain associated with it."

Read more here.

My Jewish Learning calls it "Not quite Sukkot, not quite its own holiday" - read about that over here.

But I like what Rabbi Lina and I talked about for this blog post:

The pause, tarry, piece comes from an explanation that all the nations of the world come to Jerusalem to celebrate sukkot. It's truly universal, welcoming everyone into the Temple/Sukkah. 

And then, on Hoshana Rabba, the other nations return home and G!d says to the Israelites: linger with me another day. Which I find both lovely and complicated.  So it's not so much pause, but linger.


It's a bit of "say goodbye to the holiday season".

And, yes, Shemini Atzeret is the day that the liturgy changes from praying for dew to praying for rain. We're in the Israeli climate here, which has a rainy season and a dry season and was an agricultural society, so rain was truly a matter of life and death.  We'll include the special prayer for rain in our service on October 1 - and maybe play with it a little, too.
Picture
And yes, the main draw for people on Shemini Atzeret has been the fact that yizkor, the prayer for the dead, is traditionally recited and there are a bunch of people who gather for yizkor, and we'll do that, too. But, we'll also linger.

So maybe the phrase should be: a sacred gathering. That's kind of a translation of atzeret, and it'll bring out the sense of community for yizkor." 

1 Comment
Abby
9/28/2018 01:21:57 pm

Learned a lot from this description. Thanks.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Support KSS!
    Picture
    Click on image to buy your wine and earn KSS a 5% commission!
    Picture

    Archives

    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    October 2017
    September 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
    • Our Vision & Mission
    • About Reconstructionism
    • Meet the Team
  • Youth & Families
    • School Mission Statement
  • Our Programs
    • High Holy Days 2019/5780 >
      • High Holidays Worship Services
      • Children's Services for High Holidays
      • Youth Services for High Holidays
      • Spiritual Preparation for the High Holidays
      • Break the Fast
      • More Holidays
    • Bagels and Books
    • Israel Connections and Jewish Affairs
    • Israel Forum Series
    • Soulful Shabbat
    • Lunch and Learn with Rabbi Lina
    • Rosh Chodesh at Kehillath Shalom Synagogue
  • Support KSS
  • Coming Events
  • Blog
  • Contact Us