Tag Archives: Spain

Mysteries of Shemini Atzeret & Simchat Torah

Tonight we usher in Shemini Atzeret, the final “eighth” day following Sukkot, which is technically a distinct holiday of its own. In the diaspora—where we keep two days of yom tov—the second day of Shemini Atzeret is Simchat Torah, when we start a new Torah reading cycle with a big celebration. In Israel—where one yom tov is observed—Simchat Torah and Shemini Atzeret are on the same day. The Torah does not actually say what the purpose of Shemini Atzeret is, and why it is distinct from Sukkot. Simchat Torah is not mentioned in the Torah at all! What is the real meaning behind these mysterious festivals?

‘The Feast of the Rejoicing of the Law at the Synagogue in Livorno’ by Solomon Hart (1850)

The Torah itself only tells us that we should have one extra holiday after Sukkot, a yom tov in which we should not do any work and in which we should bring offerings to Hashem (Leviticus 23:36, 39). Commenting on this, Rashi famously cites our Sages and quotes God saying “‘I keep you back with Me [atzarti] one more day’—like a king who invited his children to a banquet for a certain number of days. When the time arrived for them to leave, he said, ‘Children, I beg you, please stay one more day with me; it is so hard for me to part from you!’” The Zohar adds to this a beautiful explanation:

As discussed in the recent class here, Sukkot is a holiday envisioning the future, not commemorating the past. The prophet Zechariah tells us (in chapter 14) that in the forthcoming Messianic age, all the nations of the world will come to Jerusalem to celebrate Sukkot with us. Sukkot will become an international festival! And so, the Zohar says, once all the nations of the world leave following seven days of Sukkot in Jerusalem, only the Jewish people will remain for one more day of celebration just for us—Shemini Atzeret. That’s why the Torah says atzeret tihyeh lakhem, “it shall be an atzeret for you” (Numbers 29:35), meaning specifically for the people of Israel and not the other nations of the world who will come to celebrate Sukkot! (See Zohar I, 64a)

But why is this particular date special? What happened in history on Shemini Atzeret to make it a holiday to begin with?

Secrets from Jubilees

The ancient (apocryphal) Book of Jubilees provides an incredible origin to Shemini Atzeret. Recall that Jubilees was excluded from the Tanakh by most Jewish communities (although it was included in the Ethiopian Tanakh and in the ancient Essene Tanakh, and many copies have been found among the Dead Sea Scrolls). Nonetheless, it was always studied and referenced throughout history, and many parallel passages are found in our Midrashim (for more on this, see here).

The setup for Shemini Atzeret begins in Chapter 31 of Jubilees, where we read how Jacob destroyed all the idols in his household (paralleling Genesis 35:2). Jubilees says that it was here that Rachel told her husband about the teraphim she took from Lavan, and handed them over to Jacob to be destroyed. Jacob then finally goes to visit his parents after decades away from them. Instead of taking his entire big family on the journey, he decides to bring only his sons Levi and Judah. Isaac and Rebecca give these two grandsons special blessings, and Isaac gives Levi a blessing to be priestly and Judah to be royal. This is Jubilees’ explanation for why later in history the tribe of Levi would become priests and the tribe of Judah would give rise to the line of kings. It also explains why these are the two tribes that survived throughout history, to this day, while the other tribal lineages have been lost.

In Chapter 32, Jacob fulfils his promise to tithe everything he has to Hashem—and that includes his children! So he lines them all up and counts from the youngest up, the tenth being Levi. Thus, Levi is chosen to be the “tithe”, and to dedicate his life to Hashem. Levi has a dream where God confirms that he will be the family priest. He then builds an altar and begins his work of sacrificial offerings. The family has a seven-day celebration, going out into the fields and dwelling in booths. According to Jubilees, this is the original Sukkot!

On the eighth day, after the seven-day Sukkot is over, Hashem appears to Jacob again. This is where He affirms that “You shall be called Jacob no more, but Israel shall be your name” (Genesis 35:10). The following verses in the Torah tell us that God blesses Jacob to be fruitful, and promises to Jacob the Holy Land, and tells him that nations and kings will emerge from him. This special day is Shemini Atzeret! Fittingly, Jubilees adds that God then reveals to Jacob all the things that will happen in the End of Days, engraved upon seven tablets. Again, we see the link between Sukkot-Shemini Atzeret and the End of Days, the holiday being more about envisioning the future then commemorating the past.

In this way, Jubilees shows how Jacob celebrated Sukkot and Shemini Atzeret long before Sinai, confirming our Sages statement that the Patriarchs observed the whole Torah and marked all the holidays—even though their lives pre-dated Sinai and they did not have a physical Torah in their hands.

What about Simchat Torah? There is no explicit mention of it in Tanakh, and not in Mishnah or Talmud (and not in Jubilees either). This is a much more recent holiday. Where did it come from, and why?

Celebrating the Torah

In olden times, the Torah was typically read over the course of not one year, but three years. (Earlier still, in Biblical times, it was read publicly over the course of seven years—more on that below.) It was in the Persian Empire that the Babylonian sages sped up the cycle to read the whole Torah once a year (see Megillah 29b). Even as late as the Rambam (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, 1138-1204), he writes in the Mishneh Torah that there were still some minority communities who followed a three-year cycle, although it had become nearly universal to follow a one-year cycle (Hilkhot Tefillah 13:1). The Rambam codifies that the Torah begins anew with parashat Beresheet on the Shabbat following Sukkot. He then states that it was Ezra the Scribe who instituted the yearly cycle. There is no contradiction here, because Ezra came to Israel from Babylon.

Why start with Beresheet in the fall? Why not in Nisan, which is the first month of the Jewish calendar? This goes back to the debate between Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua on when Creation took place (Rosh Hashanah 10b-11a). The former said that Creation took place in Tishrei, while the latter argued it took place in Nisan. Rabbi Eliezer brings multiple proofs for his position, including the fact that the Torah states there had not yet been precipitation and then God “raised a mist” and made it rain before creating Adam (Genesis 2:5-6). So, the creation of Adam is clearly tied to the start of the rainy season, meaning Creation must have been in Tishrei!

Another proof is that the Torah says God created every species in its mature, adult form, including trees already containing fruits on their branches. When do find that trees are full of fruit and ready for harvest? In Tishrei! (Sukkot marks the final fruit harvest of the year.) Thus, it is fitting to read Beresheet in the fall, since the Torah begins with a description of a divine spirit “hovering over the waters”, the separation of upper and lower waters and establishment of the water cycle, the first rains, and trees full of fruit. And by the Rambam’s time, the yearly Torah-reading cycle had become essentially universal. However, the Rambam does not mention Simchat Torah.

Some four hundred years later, the Shulchan Arukh (in Orach Chaim 669) does mention Simchat Torah, but very briefly. The way Rav Yosef Karo (c. 1488-1575) phrases it makes it seem like it’s only outside of Israel—where people have to keep two yom tovs—that the second yom tov is called Simchat Torah. The Ashkenazi gloss of the Rama (Rabbi Moshe Isserles, 1530-1572) adds the details that we are familiar with: to remove all the Torah scrolls from the ark and have a big celebration, with hakafot, song and dance, and aliyot for all. The Rama’s language suggests this was the practice specifically in European lands. He cites the Arba’ah Turim of Rabbi Yakov ben Asher (“Ba’al haTurim”, c. 1269-1343) who explicitly says it was “the custom in Ashkenaz” to hold a big celebration and feast in honour of the completion of the Torah reading cycle and the start of a new one. The Ba’al haTurim was born in Ashkenaz but moved with his family to Spain around the year 1300, and became a rabbi among Sephardim. It could well be that his family of Ashkenazi rabbis introduced Simchat Torah to the Sephardic world. By the time of the great Abarbanel (1437-1508)—who was advisor to the Spanish crown and was given an exemption from the Spanish Expulsion, but famously chose to leave with his people—we see that Simchat Torah was observed in Spain, too, and Abarbanel explains (in his commentary on Deuteronomy 31:9):

It is written that each and every year, the high priest or the prophet or judge or gadol hador would read on Sukkot a portion of Torah, and would conclude reading the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers over the course of six years, and then in the seventh year (the Sabbatical), the king would read on Sukkot the book of Deuteronomy, and would complete the Torah. Thus, the custom has remained until our days, that on the eighth day festival, Shemini Atzeret, on the last day we have Simchat Torah, on which we complete the Torah…

Rav Yosef Karo himself was born in Spain, and ultimately settled in Tzfat where he was the chief rabbi. His contemporary was the great Arizal (Rabbi Isaac Luria, 1534-1572), who lived out his final years in Tzfat and revolutionized Judaism with his mystical teachings. The Arizal had an Ashkenazi father and a Mizrachi mother, and was raised in Egypt by his uncle, studying under great rabbis like the Radbaz (Rabbi David ben Solomon ibn Zimra, 1479-1573, also born in Spain). The Arizal played a big role in fusing together Sephardic, Mizrachi, and Ashkenazi practices. He revealed various mystical meditations on Simchat Torah, and particularly on the hakafot. And so, from Tzfat, Simchat Torah spread to the Mizrachi world as well, and it soon become universal to hold a big Simchat Torah celebration—with the additional details and practices mentioned by the Ba’al haTurim and Rama that first originated in Ashkenaz.

Celebrating the Tree of Life

We can now clearly piece together the evolution of Simchat Torah. It officially began in Central Europe. The first explicit mention of the term “Simchat Torah” appears to be in the 11th century Machzor Vitry, written by Rav Simcha of Vitry, France, a student of Rashi. Simchat Torah might trace back to an earlier custom among the Geonim to have a big celebration upon completion of the Torah-reading cycle. The Rambam, who came from a long line of Sephardic rabbis, does not mention Simchat Torah in the 12th century, but the Sephardi gadol Abarbanel does speak of it in the 15th century, meaning it was adopted among Sephardim at some point in those intervening three centuries. It may have been due to the Ba’al haTurim’s family who immigrated from Ashkenaz to Sepharad around the end of the 13th century.

At the same time, in 1290 CE, came the first publication of the Zohar, in Spain. The Zohar (III, 97a) does mention Simchat Torah, calling it by its Aramaic name Hedvata d’Oraita (which is likely what it would have originally been called among the Babylonian Geonim). The Zohar gives a beautiful explanation as to why we celebrate with the Torah specifically on Shemini Atzeret. As noted above, Shemini Atzeret is the festival that is only for Israel, once all the nations of the world leave after Sukkot, and once the seventy bulls offered on behalf of the seventy nations was complete. Now, only Israel remains, delighting with Hashem once last time before going off to start a new year. And what makes our relationship with Hashem special? What makes us unique compared to the other nations? The Torah! It is our covenant with Hashem, with Torah as contract, and our devotion to its laws and its study. So, Shemini Atzeret is the ideal time to celebrate the Torah, to dance with the Torah, renew our commitment to Torah, and start a new Torah-reading cycle.

We see how, between the Zohar and the Arba’ah Turim, Simchat Torah spread throughout Sepharad; and after the Spanish Expulsion, to North Africa and the Middle East and Mizrachi communities as well. Today it has become a beautiful, universal practice in all Jewish communities, a public display of faith and commitment to Hashem and His Torah. And this ties right back into what the Zohar says about Simchat Torah:

Intriguingly, the Zohar gives it another name, calling it Hedvata d’Ilana, a celebration of the Tree of Life. The simple meaning is that King Solomon called the Torah a “Tree of Life for those who grasp it” (Proverbs 3:18). On Simchat Torah we grasp the Torah quite literally! On a deeper level, connecting Simchat Torah to the Tree of Life is yet another allusion to Creation, and to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. At the start of the year, we have a new opportunity to “choose life” (Deuteronomy 30:19), to live a godly life of divine service, a life of blessing, righteousness, kindness, and goodness. It is the opportune time to set resolutions for the new year, so that it should be a fruitful, productive, happy, and blessed year for all.

Chag sameach!

Ovadiah’s Vision of October 7

The Haftarah for this week’s parasha, Vayishlach, is the entire book of Ovadiah. This is the shortest book in Tanakh, just one chapter of 21 verses. The entire text is a prophecy regarding what will happen to Edom. The Zohar (I, 171a) explains that Ovadiah alone was able to foresee what exactly will happen to Edom in the distance future because he was himself a convert from Edom! There is a bit of a debate whether this Ovadiah is the same as the Ovadiah that assisted Eliyahu in I Kings 18. Recall that the latter Ovadiah was a servant in the palace of the wicked King Ahab and his evil wife Jezebel: “When Jezebel was killing off the prophets of God, Ovadiah had taken a hundred prophets and hidden them, fifty to a cave, and provided them with food and drink.” (I Kings 18:4) The Talmud teaches us that for this incredible act of kindness and bravery, Ovadiah was himself blessed with the gift of prophecy (Sanhedrin 39b). That said, it is possible the two Ovadiahs were distinct individuals (or reincarnations of the same soul, in two different bodies). In fact, there are at least a dozen people across the Tanakh named “Ovadiah”!

Petra, in today’s Jordan

Ovadiah’s prophecy to Edom begins by promising its destruction: “I will make you least among nations, you shall be most despised.” (1:2) What did the Edomites do to deserve this? “Your arrogant heart has seduced you, you who dwell in clefts of the rock, in your lofty abode. You think in your heart: ‘Who can pull me down to earth?’” (1:3) The main Edomite stronghold in ancient times is what is today called Petra, the famous rock outcropping on the east side of the Jordan River. The Edomites believed themselves to be safe in their Petra fortress, and they grew arrogant, and then joined the Babylonians in attacking Jerusalem:

For the outrage against your brother Jacob, disgrace shall engulf you, and you shall perish forever. On that day when you stood aloof, when aliens carried off his goods, when foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were as one of them. How could you gaze with glee on your brother that day, on his day of calamity! How could you gloat over the people of Judah on that day of ruin! How could you loudly jeer on a day of anguish! (1:10-12)

This is echoed in Psalm 137:7, which describes the tragic destruction of Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonians, and says: “Remember, Hashem, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem’s fall; how they cried ‘Strip her, strip her to her very foundations!’” The Edomite cruelly went along with the Babylonian catastrophe, the destruction of the Holy Temple, and the exile of the Judeans. And for that, God promised that they should “perish forever”. When did this happen?

The Hasmoneans, of Maccabee fame, conquered Edom (by then called Idumea) during the reign of King Yochanan Hyrcanus (r. 134-104 BCE, probably the same person called Yochanan Kohen Gadol in the Talmud—more in his identity here). The Romans later absorbed Idumea into their own empire, and in 6 CE incorporated it into the province of Judea. It was then that Edom completely ceased to exist as its own entity—Ovadiah’s prophecy was finally fulfilled. Henceforth, in rabbinic texts, “Edom” was instead used as a code word for the Roman Empire (to understand why, see the second part of the recent ‘Understanding Edom’ series, and ‘How Esau Became Rome’ in Volume Two of Garments of Light).

That said, we know that the Tanakh often presents us with “double-level” prophecies, to be fulfilled in those contemporary days of the past, as well as in the far future. After all, at its core the Tanakh is not a historical text, but a prophetic one. It has relevance not just to the past, but for the present and future, too. We study Tanakh to better understand ourselves and our souls, and to understand the world around us. The Torah is a living text, and we view the world through the lens of Torah. Thus, Ovadiah’s prophecy was not just for the past, fulfilled two millennia ago, but also for the far future, for the End of Days, and we can use it to better understand our current reality.

The Evolution of Edom & Rome

The key to understanding Ovadiah’s End Times vision is recognizing the identity of Edom. In Jewish texts, Edom is always used in reference to the Roman Empire. The original Roman Empire collapsed in 476 CE with the sack of Rome by the Germanic king Odoacer. However, the Roman Empire had previously been split into Western and Eastern halves. The West half was centered in Rome, while the Eastern half was centered in Constantinople. The Eastern half was not overrun by barbarians, and continued to exist—referred to today as the “Byzantine Empire”. Henceforth, its illustrious capital Constantinople was seen as the new, “second” Rome.

Division of the Roman Empire in 395 CE

In 1453 CE, the Ottomans conquered Constantinople, turning it into Istanbul. As the city became Islamified, the Orthodox Christian establishment fled—many of them to Moscow. They designated Moscow as the new, and “third” Rome. Henceforth, the leader of Russia was no longer called a “duke”, but rather czar, literally “caesar”. Russia adopted the Roman eagle as its symbol, and the red Edomite colours. This continued all the way through to the Red Army of the USSR, with its red flag and its epicentre at Red Square in Moscow. And so, although “Edom” certainly refers to the entire Western and Christian world, the leading oppressor of Edom is referred to more specifically as the “Third Rome”.

Indeed, we find that Russia and the USSR have been the longest and most consistent oppressor of Israel for centuries. Whether it’s the Pale of Settlement, the Cantonist Laws (that forcibly conscripted Jewish children to the Russian Army for decades of service), the pogroms, or the gulags; the USSR’s role in creating the “Palestinian” movement and training the PLO, or the KGB’s infiltration of the Israeli Knesset (discussed in this class), or Russia today supporting Hamas and Hezbollah (neither of which is designated a terrorist organization by Russia, unlike by nearly all Western countries). It was also in Russia that the infamous Protocols of the Elders of Zion was produced, inspiring generation after generation of antisemites and Jew-murderers.

So, while there may still be some debate in Jewish circles regarding who exactly is the “Third Rome” of the world today, it actually seems quite clear that all signs point to Moscow. Amazingly, the Talmud (Sanhedrin 98a) predicted that there would be three Romes, but not a fourth, and that Mashiach would come after the fall of the Third Rome. As explored in the past (in an essay here, and in the three-part video series on “Third Rome”), the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989 (or 5750) corresponded perfectly to the final possible starting point of the Ikvot haMashiach, the “End of Days” era leading up to the Messianic Age. With this in mind, we can understand Ovadiah’s prophecy and how it relates to today’s events.

Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis

Ovadiah 1:3 accuses Edom of becoming arrogant, and feeling safe in their “lofty abode”. This could certainly apply to Russia, which has in recent years been arrogantly trying to conquer (or reconquer) neighbouring lands in Georgia, Crimea, and Ukraine. Perhaps the Russian regime feels safe in their vast and cold northern abode, knowing full well that no one has been able to defeat them in the past, not even the massive, powerful armies of Napoleon or Hitler. So, Russia arrogantly went to war with Ukraine, and thought it would be a quick “special operation”. Instead, it has turned into a full-blown proxy war against NATO, and Russia has suffered horrendous losses. They are now relying partly on cheaply-made Iranian drones and missiles, and on thousands of North Korean mercenaries who have not been able to help very much either. At the same time, support from allies like China and Belarus has been underwhelming. Ovadiah describes this all very well:

How thoroughly rifled is Esau, how ransacked his hoards! All your allies turned you back at the frontier; your own confederates have duped and overcome you; [those who ate] your bread have planted snares under you. He is bereft of understanding. (v. 6-7)

One of the Edomite allies that Ovadiah refers to are the “warriors of Teiman”, and Ovadiah says they will “lose heart” and faulter: v’hatu giborekha teiman! (v. 9) It is interesting to point out that one of the so-called 3 H’s that Russia supports is the Houthis of Yemen, ie. Teiman (the other two are Hamas and Hezbollah). Ovadiah even gives a cryptic allusion to this in saying those murderers in Teiman will be hatu—Houthis! More incredibly, the very next verse mentions Hamas: “For the violence against your brother Jacob, disgrace shall engulf you, and you shall perish forever.” (v. 10) The word for “violence” here, of course, is hamas. Ovadiah goes on to accuse Edom of supporting those who came against Israel:

On that day when you stood aloof, when aliens carried off his goods, when foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were as one of them. How could you gaze with glee on your brother that day, on his day of calamity! How could you gloat over the people of Judah on that day of ruin! How could you loudly jeer on a day of anguish! How could you enter the gate of My people on its day of disaster, gaze in glee with the others on its misfortune on its day of disaster, and lay hands on its wealth on its day of disaster! (v. 12-14)

Edom stood by while Israel was being slaughtered. The terrorists came to “cast lots for Jerusalem”. Recall that the name Hamas chose for their day of terror on October 7 was “Al-Aqsa Flood”—they believed they were coming to “liberate” Al-Aqsa, ie. Jerusalem. Ovadiah says Edom played a role in this because they were concerned for their own wealth. Indeed, many have pointed out that Russia had the most to gain from October 7: In the days leading up to it, all the talk in the media was about Israel’s impending peace deal with Saudi Arabia—which would include oil and gas pipelines through Israel to Europe that would undermine Russia’s own supply to Europe (Russia’s main source of wealth). Russia had to stop the deal to protect its oil and gas riches. It worked, as October 7 quashed the Israel-Saudi deal.

At the same time, Russia wanted to get the world off its back for Ukraine, and this too happened post-October 7, with the world quickly forgetting about Ukraine and turning all of its attention to Gaza. Funding and donations for Ukraine subsequently dropped in dramatic fashion, the world’s money now channeled to Gaza instead. (Ukrainian officials complained greatly about this, to deaf ears!) For Russia, October 7 was a win-win. And it also just happened to be Putin’s birthday!

Ovadiah concludes his prophecy by relaying God’s promise that the wicked Edomite regime would be destroyed, and would never again bother Israel. The flame of Israel will be rekindled, “the House of Jacob shall be fire, and the House of Joseph flame, and the House of Esau shall be straw…” (v. 18) and we will see the eventual positive outcome of this tragic war, with Israel reclaiming “the Negev and Mount Esau as well, the Shephelah and Philistia. They shall possess the Ephraimite country and the district of Samaria, and Benjamin along with Gilead.” Remember that Philistia is Gaza, and the Ephraimite country, Samaria, and Benjamin makes up most of the “West Bank”, while Gilead refers to the general area around the Golan Heights. We are seeing this happening right before our eyes now.

Finally, “the exile of the Children of Israel, that have gone to be kna’anim as far as Tzarfat, and the Jerusalemite exile as far as Sepharad, shall possess the towns of the Negev.” (v. 20) In the times of Ovadiah, Tzarfat and Sepharad referred to places north of Israel, in what is today Lebanon and Turkey. Over time, just as Edom became the Roman Empire, Tzarfat became France and Sephard became Spain. Interestingly, when looking back at Jewish texts from around 1000 years ago, we find that there is mention of Jewish communities distinct from Ashkenazi and Sephardi, called Tzarfati Jews and Kna’ani Jews. The Tzarfati Jews are a bit better known because of great figures like Rashi, but we hear very little of the Kna’ani Jews. Who were they?

“Kna’ani” was the label for those Jews living in Eastern Europe, among Slavic peoples. Intriguingly, they were called Kna’ani because in Biblical parlance “Canaanite” was synonymous with being a “slave” (since Canaan was cursed with slavery). The Slavic peoples of Eastern Europe were a major source of slaves in Roman and Medieval times; in fact, the root of the word “slave” is slav! This is why Jews living among the Slavs were nicknamed “Kna’ani”. Over time, the Kna’ani Jewish community fused together with the Ashkenazi community originally rooted in Germany, and most of the Tzarfati community in France (while many in southern France fused with their nearby Sephardis). Meanwhile, following the Spanish Expulsion the Sephardi community fused together with North African and Mizrachi communities. Thus, in effect, when Ovadiah speaks of Kna’ani, Tzarfati, and Sephardi Judeans in exile, he is really referring to all the major groups of Jews today.

Very soon, all Jews still in exile will return to a stronger and larger and more prosperous Israel, “For liberators shall march up on Mount Zion to wreak judgment on Mount Esau; and dominion shall be God’s.” (v. 21) May it come speedily and in our days.

Shabbat Shalom!

The Hidden Connection Between Lag b’Omer and Yom Yerushalayim

Rabbi Shlomo Goren blows the shofar by the Western Wall during the 1967 liberation of Jerusalem.

This Thursday evening, the 18th of Iyar, we mark the mystical holiday of Lag b’Omer. Ten days later, on the 28th of Iyar, we commemorate Yom Yerushalayim, when Jerusalem was liberated and reunified in 1967 during the miraculous Six-Day War. At first glance, these two events may seem completely unrelated. However, upon deeper examination, there is actually a profound and fascinating connection between the two. To get to the bottom of it, we must first clarify what actually happened on these dates in history to uncover their true spiritual significance. Continue reading →