THE HAPPIEST DAY OF THE YEAR!
Tishrei
21, 5772/October 19, 2011
Our sages long ago
declared that Tu b'Av, (the 15th
day of Av) and Yom Kippur are the
happiest days on the Hebrew calendar. Their determination serves to give
prominence to Tu b'Av, a day that
otherwise might go largely unnoticed, and also helps us to refocus what
otherwise might be a misconception of Yom Kippur as a day of harsh
judgment, and to appreciate it for what it really is, a day of profound
love and forgiveness. But what about Rosh HaShana, which precedes Yom
Kippur, in which we stand directly before G-d our King and
declare His sovereignty over all creation. Surely there is profound
happiness in being able to reaffirm our total allegiance to HaShem and to
know that He is our eternal King?
And just five days after
Yom Kippur we enter our sukkot
(booths) which we have made with our own hands and there for seven whole
days we dwell as in a cloud of G-d's Divine glory. What
could possibly be more joyful than to literally dwell in
G-d's shadow and from the vantage point of our thin-walled
sukkot and our thatched leafy roofs to perceive the pureness and beauty of
G-d's world, the world He made for us? Surely these are the
happiest days of the year?
But it is the seventh
and final day of Sukkot, known as Hoshana Raba, that is unquestionably the
most happy of all days on this earth! After all, if our Divine verdict was
written, (by our own hand as directed by our own heart), on Rosh HaShana,
and the verdict, after the intense ten day period of teshuvah - return to HaShem - was sealed
on Yom Kippur, now on Hoshana Raba, according to our tradition, our
verdicts are at last delivered into the realm of the unfolding reality of
our new year. So we take advantage of this momentous day to dedicate
ourselves to Torah study and to revisit and intensify our Yom Kippur
commitments in order to assure that our verdicts are sweetened in
accordance with G-d's overwhelming and abundant mercy. This,
no doubt, it the happiest day of the year!
Ahhh, but tonight we
celebrate the sublime holiday of Shmini Atzeret, literally the eighth
(shmini) day in which we are
personally invited by G-d our heavenly Father to join Him
alone on this eighth day beyond the seven days of the natural, created
world, beyond the confines of time and space that we occupy every other
day of the year. Here on this day even the thin diaphanous walls of our
sukkot that for seven days have
provided only the barest of separation between ourselves and
G-d, are stripped away. Nothing stands between us and HaShem
as we dance arm in arm with His Torah. There are no third party
commitments here and no last minute pleas or prayers. Today on Shmini
Atzeret we celebrate Simchat Torah - the pure unadulterated joy of being
one with G-d through our total embrace of His Torah. And on
this day we conclude our yearly reading of the five books of Torah by
reciting the final chapters and verses of Deuteronomy before beginning it
all over again by immediately reading the opening verses of the book of
Genesis describing the six days of the creation and the seventh day of
Holy Shabbat. On this day of Shmini Atzeret we are no longer on the
outside looking in, but we are on the inside being one with
G-d. Pure and sublime happiness!
So why then did our
sages determine that Yom Kippur is the happiest day of the year? In the
unfolding kaleidoscopic days of the month of Tishrei, beginning with Rosh HaShana and
concluding with Shmini Atzeret, can we really make such a declaration?
Perhaps our sages were taking their clue from G-d Himself,
Who when filling His newly created world with the limitless light of His
love for His creation had to at one point declare, "Enough! There is a
limit to the Divine light that My world can bear. Beyond that limit I
shall not shine My light. But through the limits that I have created, My
world can always draw closer to Me." In the end it's really not a contest
which day is the happiest day for Israel. Each and every day of the year
contains its own unique quantity and quality and potential for joy. It is
our task to reach for and realize the special joy of each day that
G-d has measured out and laid in store for us. Chag Sameach and Shana Tova - a Happy Holiday
and a Good Year to all! |