Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah

The story behind the day

Shemini Atzeret, the "eighth day of assembly", and Simchat Torah, "rejoicing in the Torah", close the autumn festival season on the 22nd and 23rd of Tishri. Shemini Atzeret is the festival the Torah sets directly after the seven days of Sukkot, and it brings memorial prayers and the first prayers for rain. Simchat Torah, a later celebration, marks the end and immediate restart of the yearly Torah reading, with processions and dancing. Israel keeps both on a single day, as do Reform congregations; elsewhere they take two days.^[1–7]

Origins

Leviticus and Numbers command a sacred assembly, with rest from ordinary work, on the eighth day after Sukkot begins. The name Shemini Atzeret reflects this, and means the eighth day of assembly or gathering. Whether it is a last day of Sukkot or a festival in its own right is a question Jewish sources raise. Chabad calls it an independent holiday, and a Conservative source notes that Jewish law treats it as a distinct festival in many contexts.^{[1–2, 8]}

What it marks

On Shemini Atzeret worshippers begin to pray for rain, in the season when the rains are due in the land of Israel, and say the Yizkor prayer for the dead. Simchat Torah, the festival of rejoicing, celebrates finishing the annual cycle of Torah reading and beginning it again at once with Genesis.^[3–5]

How it came to be

Simchat Torah was not known as a separate festival in Talmudic times, though the Talmud already named the end of the Torah as the reading for the day. Its characteristic celebrations began to develop in the geonic period, roughly the ninth to eleventh centuries. The background is a change in reading practice. Jews in the land of Israel originally read the Torah over three years, while the one-year cycle was a Babylonian custom, and the one-year cycle came to prevail.^[9–10]

How it is kept

hakafot, scrolls carried and danced — Hakafot, scrolls carried and dancedIllustration · AI-generated

Outside Israel, Jews still eat in the sukkah on the eighth day but without the blessing for dwelling in it. On Simchat Torah the scrolls are taken from the Ark and carried around the bimah seven times in hakafot, with singing and dancing. Children have a central role: they receive their own aliyah and carry flags, traditionally adorned with apples that hold lit candles. The reading finishes at the end of Deuteronomy and begins again with Genesis.^{[5, 11–13]}

Across traditions

In Israel the festival lasts one day, and the customs of both are combined. Outside Israel it is usually two days, with Simchat Torah on the second. Reform congregations, which generally keep one day for festivals, follow the Israeli pattern, with the hakafot adapted into that single day. Orthodox and Conservative congregations in the diaspora keep two.^{[6–7, 14]}

Sources

Each statement above was checked against published sources; the verdict says whether it stood as written, was corrected or was hedged.