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Drash for Shabbat Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah By Jeanette Shawl - October 13, 2006 This week’s portion is from Re’eh. The specific text deals with tithing, community welfare and the three pilgrimage festivals of Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot. As I read, I found myself drawn to verses 14-15 of Chapter 16 and the image of a community united in joy. You shall rejoice in your festival, with your son and daughter, your male and female slave, the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow in your communities. You shall hold a festival for the Eternal your God seven days, in the place that the Eternal will choose; for the Eternal your God will bless all your crops and all your undertakings, and you shall have nothing but joy. The following is an imaginary exploration of Sukkot as well as Shemini Atzeret, the eighth day following the seventh of Sukkot. Rashi described Shemini Atzeret as the eighth day festival requested by the Host/Adonai who is reluctant to have us leave Him. It is a day in which the Jewish people ideally carry the spirit of Sukkot into both their homes and the rest of the year.
Desert Dreams Darkness drapes itself over bough-covered huts. Within sleep the desert dreamers. Now is the seventh and final night. Earthen pots and jugs form pyramids stacked in corners; All lies ready for the journey home.
What dreams spin from warm memories! No hardened heart of pharaoh here. All had rejoiced. Son and daughter; neighbor and stranger rejoiced and feasted seven days. Within these huts, women sang, laughed—- and cradled the needy child.
Children leaned closer to hear again—- stories sung by sun-withered men. Histories committed to memory. Accounts of slavery, water divided, and a Voice —and still they walk.
The stranger listened— The widow sat richly wrapped Night sky fades into grey—then a rose dawn. A Voice, hovering cloudlike, requests Soft darkness blooms now over rooftops. Shabbat Shalom.
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