What does Shmini Atzeret have to do with Simchat Torah, why are the two combined? The דרשא of אך שמח to include Shemini Atzeret to the mitzvah of simcha is written at the end of Reah in the context of Sukkot, why not spell out Atzeret? Why do we dance on Simchat Torah but not on Shavuot when we received the Torah?
The holiday of Atzeret is the time to take in, עצור, all the holiness and inspiration one received over the beginning of Tishray. It is the time to internalize the days of Sukkot. This is integrated with the celebration of the Torah. Because it is the Torah that lasts when the mitzvot fade away. It is by absorbing Torah that the energy of Tishray can be taken into the year.
Shavuot is the time we received the Torah but that was the Torah shebectav, it is not necessarily integrated within the person. That is a time to study and try to understand Torah, it is not a time of rejoicing. Shemini Atzeret is the time of the celebration of the Torah shebal peh, the Torah that becomes part of the individual. The celebration is not on the Torah itself, but its ability to become absorbed into the individual. The celebration. The hat is why there is dancing with is done the totality of a person to embody the absorption of the Torah. That may be why the simcha of Shemini is not explicit, it must be derived because the Torah is indicating to us the nature of the simcha is that from the Torah which a person must being out on their own.
No comments:
Post a Comment