Pre Shmini Atzeret Post

What is the meaning of the word atzeret, as it appears in Vayikrah 23:36 ?

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Rashi - cites a medrash and uses a phrase (his own wording) that has caught on. He tells a story of a host that has many people over and then asks his dearest friends to stay a little bit longer, saying, "Kashah alai preidatchem," - "Your separation is difficult for me."
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Ibn Ezra - quotes those who say that it means kehilah - gathering together (based on Yirmiyahu 9:1). Ibn Ezra points out, as others do, that this word appears in the context of the last day of Pesach (Devarim 16:8) which features a command to retreat to privacy (Devarim 16:7). He says that the word atzeret connotes stopping to make G-d primary and all else secondary (based on Shmuel 1 21:8). He backs up his explanation by noting that both here and in regard to Pesach the announcement of a day of atzeret is followed by the exhortation to refrain from melachah - work. Not doing other work allows this to be a true atzeret, a G-d centered day.

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Sforno - says that "Atzeret is not simply the concept of holding back from regular melachah." He says that atzeret connotes, along with refraining from work, placing oneself in a holy place and praying and serving G-d there, basing himself on Shmuel 1 21:8, in addition to Yoel 1:14, and Melachim 2 10:20. He says that the day after the last day of all the holiday cycle is an appropriate day to set aside to go to holy spots and engage in happiness of Torah and kindness. He points out that on the seventh day of Pesach the Jewish People, together with Moshe, sang to G-d (Shmot 15:1) and that's why that day is called atzeret laHashem (Devarim 16:8). This, he explains, is why Shavuot is referred to as Atzeret - because on this fiftieth day after Yetziat Mitzrayim the Jews stopped together to serve G-d. (He suggests that the Torah doesn't call this day Atzeret because the Jewish People later denounced this day when they listened to the negative reports of most of the meraglim (Shmot 33:6).

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Ramban - offers a kabbalistic idea about the six days all being a pair and the seventh and the Jewish People being a pair. He says this is the idea of atzeret, the eight being us. He develops this concept and says that what we call the Omer period is really like Chol HaMoed and Shavuot is the atzeret, topping it off. So too, Sukkos has an atzeret at its completion.

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Da'at Mikrah - breaks it down into several major approaches, either a. stopping or b. closing or c. gathering.

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Chizkuni - tells the story of a group that gathers with a friend. Knowing that they'll be back in 50 days they don't make a big deal over parting. The next time, they know they will meet again in a few months, so, again, there's no major to do over separating. But the next time, as they part, they realize this is it for six months so they add on a day to deal with the long break up ahead.
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Rav Hirsch - says that atzeret is a special kind of stopping, stopping and trying to hold on to something before it slips through your hands. He says, as others before him, that Sukkos marks the end of the cycle of the Shalosh Regalim. We have a special day to try to focus before returning to the "real world."

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My Thoughts:

Today, we experience Sukkos not so much as the end of the Shalosh Regalim, but as the end of a month of holy days. We take one day to try to figure out how to bring this holiness into our regular lives.

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"Kashah alai preidatchem/Your separation is difficult for Me." This is understood to refer to separating from G-d, kaviyachol. Some say the preidah is our separation from each other. It dawned on me on YomTov that preidah may refer to fragmentation within our selves. A dear friend of mine heard my thoughts and commented that the three are connected - it's the three relationships we have in life.

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A man had trouble finding things in the morning. So he made a list before he went to sleep. It read, in part: My tie is on the doorknob, my shirt is on the chair, my socks are under the bed, and I am in bed. He woke up in the morning and went through the list and found gathered everything together. But when he did not see himself in bed he panicked. The idea is that everything can be in place in life, but if we are fragmented, if we don't know where we are, then nothing is in place.

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May we be blessed, in the merit of the one more day we will take to wrap it all up, to connect to G-d, each other, and to find ourselves this year. May this be a year of unity in all directions.

P.S. Three years ago after the last days of Chag I wrote this one paragraph post. I love that it elicited comments from six different people. I stand by the post and what's in it.