Tishrei

Weekly Wisdom for Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah
by Naomi Shifrin, Or HaLev Teacher

We've been on this incredible journey. A journey to the Chuppah, a journey of marriage between us and Hakadosh Baruch Hu, the Blessed Holy One.The period from Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur and Sukkot  has been one long wedding.

And now we reach Shemini Atzeret.

Rashi explains this word Atzeret through a parable. He says that this day is a detention, when Hashem has detained us with Him, Her, Them. It's like a king who invites his children to a feast for a certain number of days, and when the time comes for them to leave, he says: "My children, please stay with me one more day. It is difficult for me to part from you."

We feel that here on Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah, Hashem is longing for us, asking us: "Please stay. Please stay and be close and intimate. Be here with me."

There's a subtle quality to that staying. It’s a subtlety and a quality that we can sense into when we allow our breathing, our bodies and our minds to slow.

It’s presence. Hereness. In simple, slow presence, there's closeness. There’s intimacy with life, with the Source of Life.
The presence of the Divine is with us on this day: so close, closer than our breath, closer than our thoughts, at one with the core of our being. That which cannot be understood or described - the Or Ein Sof, the Infinite Light.

Though we cannot grasp it, we can close our eyes and we can pray.

That's my blessing for us all on this day: that we speak with Life in this subtle, gentle place; that we whisper from the truest places to this One, sharing the longings of our hearts as the gates close at the end of this particular journey.

That we give gratitude, that we share our love for our Beloved, who's just longing so much for us to come close and stay. What joy that brings, to the Divine and to us.

Chag Sameach!