How do we celebrate Sukkot and Simchat Torah after Oct. 7?

OCTOBER 2, 2026 16:03The sukkah evokes God’s protection of our people in the wilderness, but His providence is not limited to the Jewish people. Though we enjoy a unique relationship with God and a special measure of Providence, He is the Creator and sustainer of the entire world, providing life to every nation and every creature. Sukkot reminds us that God’s care extends to all humanity.That universal dimension was not only an idea. Historically, Sukkot drew people from beyond the Jewish nation to Jerusalem.Sukkot marks the end of the agricultural cycle, Chag Ha’asif, the festival of gathering in the harvest. With the harvest completed and the rainy season not yet begun, it was a natural season for travel and pilgrimage, and Jerusalem became the setting for a broad public gathering. This international character was already evident at the dedication of the First Temple.The Temple was dedicated during Sukkot, and its construction had depended partly on assistance and materials from outside Israel, most notably from Hiram of Tyre. At the dedication, King Solomon prayed for the foreigner who would come from a distant land and turn toward the Temple, asking that God answer him so that “all the peoples of the earth may know Your name.”This vision reaches its fullest expression in Zechariah’s prophecy that nations from across the world will one day travel to Jerusalem to recognize Divine authority and celebrate Sukkot. Our harvest festival thus becomes, in the prophetic future, a festival that draws humanity to Jerusalem.Praying at the entrance to the Temple Mount on Sukkot, Sept. 29. (credit: FLASH90)To underscore this international character, the Torah prescribes 70 bulls as festival offerings on Sukkot, corresponding to the 70 nations of the ancient world. Sukkot therefore expresses concern for the welfare and blessing of humanity as a whole.Shmini Atzeret: A very different holidayAs Sukkot ends, however, a very different holiday emerges. Shmini Atzeret has a distinct character. The pageantry of the 70 bulls has concluded, and with it the pronounced internationalism of Sukkot.Shmini Atzeret also occupies a special place on the calendar. Passover opened the annual cycle of pilgrimage festivals, followed by Shavuot and Sukkot; Shmini Atzeret now brings that entire cycle to a close. The year’s festival cycle ends with a quiet, intimate day between God and His people.As the midrash famously imagines, God tells us that our departure is difficult for Him and asks us to remain for one additional day. After the crowds, the harvest, and the universal vision of Sukkot, Shmini Atzeret becomes an intimate moment of covenant.That intimacy may also explain why Shmini Atzeret possesses no distinctive symbolic mitzvah comparable to sukkah, lulav, matzah, or shofar. It is a day of closeness, love, and covenant, a final day simply to remain with God.Over the past millennium, the second day of Shmini Atzeret in the Diaspora became Simchat Torah, celebrating the completion of the annual Torah reading and immediately beginning it again. Though this added a new dimension, it fit naturally with the festival’s particularistic character. Simchat Torah does not focus on humanity as a whole, but on the unique covenant between God and the Jewish people and the Torah entrusted to us.Whether experienced as two days in the Diaspora or merged into a single day in Israel, Shmini Atzeret and Simchat Torah strike a very different note from the festival of Sukkot. Sukkot looks outward toward humanity and the wider world. Shmini Atzeret turns inward toward Jewish selection, covenant, and Torah.One Jewish mission: The demanding life of covenant and commandmentOf course, these two movements belong together. We were chosen to live a more demanding life of covenant and commandment and, through that life, to model a relationship with God for humanity. Jewish selection therefore means responsibility and example, not privilege and luxury. Without a universal horizon, the Jewish mission becomes narrow and empty. Likewise, without our particular covenant, our distinctive way of life, and our relationship with God, our message to humanity loses its substance.More than any other festival, the extended Sukkot-Shmini Atzeret-Simchat Torah experience highlights this interdependence. Sukkot opens outward toward the nations and toward God’s providence over the entire world. Shmini Atzeret and Simchat Torah turn inward toward covenant, Torah, and the distinctive obligations of Am Yisrael. Jewish universalism draws its strength from Jewish particularism, while Jewish particularism finds purpose in a mission that reaches beyond ourselves.Establishing ourselves on two frontsFor the first 75 years of the State of Israel, it seemed that we were gradually advancing on both dimensions of Jewish identity: strengthening our national life in our own land while also gaining a broader place among the nations.Jewish selection is geographically anchored in this land. Our destiny as God’s chosen people cannot be fully realized on the boulevards of Europe or in the suburbs of the United States. It must be lived in the land God designated for His people.Slowly but steadily, we were reestablishing ourselves in a land from which we had been absent for nearly 2,000 years.At the same time, Israel, which had initially faced enormous international hostility and suspicion, was steadily gaining acceptance. It became a formidable military power, a vibrant democracy, and a technological powerhouse. Relations with parts of the Arab world were also improving, culminating in growing diplomatic and economic ties.On both fronts, the trajectory seemed encouraging.Shmini Atzeret and Simchat Torah after Oct. 7Shmini Atzeret and Simchat Torah three years ago changed everything. On that day, we were thrust into a maelstrom that made the balance between Jewish universalism and Jewish particularism far more complicated.We rallied with extraordinary determination to defend the land designated for us and bound up with our national destiny. Across Israeli society, enormous numbers of soldiers and families have displayed courage, sacrifice, and devotion to the land and to the larger national story unfolding within it.Yet this war has come at a steep international price, in large measure through no fault of our own. We had no realistic alternative to defending ourselves against enemies committed to our destruction. We fought a war we could not avoid, yet it has led to a sharp decline in international sympathy and support. Our enemies have worked aggressively to cast Israel as the villain and to spread a deeply distorted account of the war.Many decent but poorly informed people have absorbed that narrative without understanding how far it is from the realities we have faced. Even in countries and communities once strongly supportive of Israel, attitudes have shifted dramatically.That change has made the universal dimension of our mission far more difficult. Our universal mission was never dependent on being admired. Jewish history has rarely afforded us that luxury. A moral message does not become less valid because others refuse to hear it. Yet a people hoping to carry a moral and religious message to humanity cannot easily do so when large parts of the world view it with suspicion or hostility. When Israel is viewed through suspicion and anger, the Jewish voice is harder to hear beyond our own borders.We were attacked on Shmini Atzeret and Simchat Torah, and for three years we have fought fiercely for what those days represent: our covenant, our people, and our right to live securely in our land. On that front, we have stood firm. But the broader vision of Sukkot – our place among the nations and our concern for the wider human family – has suffered.We cannot allow rejection to drive us inward. How can we continue to defend the message of Shmini Atzeret and Simchat Torah without surrendering the vision of Sukkot?■The writer is a rabbi and educator at Yeshivat Har Etzion (Gush). Find his latest book, Echoes of Rashi: Bereishit, at mtaraginbooks.comFollow us on Google