Yudi Sufrin, Finance Director
-2-
סוכות
My friend got back from his business trip
A long time
Too long
So long, he decided to travel together with his family
A wife and infant son
It was
tiring
Schlepped to every corner of the globe, he says
The grateful smile put there by our reunion
slowly eroding
As he relives city after city
Vapid hotel rooms, and all the Airbnbs start to look the same
After a while
Just glad
to be back
But I notice
The baby’s smile never fades
Trip? What trip?
I was right there in my mother’s arms
The whole time
-1-
יום הכפורים
Rav teaches that the last prayer on the day of Yom Kippur is called “Ne’ilah” because that’s when the gates of Heaven are
locked.
Done.
No more atonement.
No more praying.
No more fixing.
What’s done is done.
No more.
But what if I’m inside the gates
instead of outside?
What if I sneak in somehow
just under the wire?
Alone together
With the Creator
A little longer
-3-
שמיני עצרת
The voice of G!d sounded a lot like a crowd of strangers sing-shouting along to Prince
On the darkened dancefloor
The half-empty space between the stage and the merch table at the Double Door
While we waited for the headliner to show up
They were late
And reeked of cheap beer
I was turned the wrong way, cleaving to the wall instead of
cleaving to G!d
But it was
tremendous
Even before the band started
YOU SEXXXXY MUTHAFUCKKAAAA!
And I didn’t want it to end
And I still don’t
Shmini Atzeres is chronologically connected to Sukkos and to Simchas Torah. It comes directly after Hoshana Raba (the last day of Sukkos), and in diaspora communities it’s sandwiched right before Simchas Torah. But our sages teach that Shmini Atzeres is not part of either Sukkos or Simchas Torah. It’s a holiday unto itself. The rituals of both Sukkos and Simchas Torah can be very communally-minded and outwardly obvious. But Shmini Atzeres is different. Maybe it’s more introspective. It’s a day when G!d says to the Jewish people (so-to-speak), “After all we’ve been through, you and I, let’s have one day that transcends all the ups and downs of Tishrei, when it’s just us together. I love you and I want to spend another day just with you.” So it follows that in order to understand what the holiday of Shmini Atzeres is really all about, one must first experience the previous Tishrei holidays internally.
Reference Notes
“Ne’ilah”: Lit. “locked”
But what if I’m inside the gates instead of outside?: Likkutei Sichos, Volume 4, Yom HaKippurim
In Israel Shmini Atzeres and Simchas Torah are the same day. Some progressive Jewish communities observe this way even in the diaspora.
It would be easy for a person to conclude that the name of the holiday, which includes the word “shmini” - Hebrew for “eighth” - refers to the number of days since the beginning of Sukkos. However, this could imply that it’s a continuation of Sukkos, which goes against our premise that Shmini Atzeres is a different holiday. In order to resolve this tension our mystical tradition teaches that the number 7 represents this revealed, physical plane of existence, as exemplified in many patterns we can study (e.g. days of the week, orifices in the human head, colors of the visible light spectrum, notes in the Western musical scale, continents and seas on Earth, etc.). Therefore, the number 8 represents that which is beyond our revealed reality. The name Shmini Atzeres is teaching us to reach just beyond ourselves and our everyday existence.