Leaves fall and fields turn pale. Days grow shorter and cooler. The last vestiges of summer light and plenty fade away, and the earth lumbers towards the sleepy months of winter. The rhythms of Creation are inescapable.
The month Heshvan is sometimes called Mar-Heshvan—mar meaning “bitter”, an allusion to the absence of holidays in the month, but perhaps a fitting reflection of the changing seasons. While Heshvan need not be bitter, the absence of holidays is accentuated by the sheer number of observances in the preceding month, Tishrei. The first of that month, Rosh Hashanah, begins the Ten Days of Awe, punctuated by Yom Kippur. Just five days later, Sukkot is observed for seven days, concluding with Shemini Atzeret, the Eighth Day Assembly.
This Eighth Day Assembly is curious, though not unique to Sukkot. From the Hebrew word עצר, meaning “to stop,” atzeret is often translated as “sacred assembly,” but might more specifically mean something akin to “concluding festival.” Indeed, the word atzeret is found several times in the Tanach, usually as a conclusion to a seven-day festival. The seven-day-long festivals of Pesach1 and Sukkot2 both conclude with an “atzeret.” Solomon’s seven-day dedication of the Temple3 ends with an “atzeret.”
This pattern of “seven + concluding festival” is seen not just on the order of days, but also weeks. In later writings4, the word atzeret becomes synonymous with Shavuot, the festival celebrated after counting seven weeks from the first grain harvest. Traditionally, this seven-week period begins at Pesach, leading the sages to consider Shavuot the atzeret, concluding festival, for all of Pesach. Thus, each of the three pilgrimage festivals are seen to conclude with an atzeret.
This pattern of seven days or weeks can be further abstracted to months, with these three pilgrimage festivals occurring in the first seven months of the year: Pesach in the first month, Shavuot seven weeks later, and Sukkot in the seventh month. The pilgrimage festivals and High Holy Days thus fit into a seven-month-long cycle, culminating in Shemini Atzeret, the Eighth Day Assembly concluding not just Sukkot, but indeed all of the biblically prescribed festivals. The remaining five months of the calendar are dotted with later additions (Hannukah, Purim) but not until Pesach is there again a Torah-commanded holiday. Sukkot and Shemini Atzeret serve to close the seven-month cycle of festivals.
The Midrash on the Song of Songs speaks of two calendrical “closings”:
a closing on Passover and a closing on the Festival [of Sukkot]. The Holy One blessed be He said to Israel: You close before Me on the Festival [of Sukkot], and I close before you on Passover. You close before Me on the Festival [of Sukkot], and I open, blow winds, elevate clouds, cause rain to fall, cause the sun to shine, cause plants to grow, ripen fruit, and set a table for each and every one according to his needs, and [provide] each and every body all that it lacks. I close before you on Passover, and you go out, reap, thresh, winnow, and perform all your needs in the field, and you find it filled with blessings.
Shir HaShirim Rabbah 7:2:2
The seven months beginning with Pesach are man’s time to work the earth, to plant and cultivate and grow and harvest. They are a time to do the work necessary to sustain ourselves, to find blessing, and to offer the fruits of our labors to HaShem. The following five months are HaShem’s time to replenish the earth, to cause rains to fall and the soil to be nourished, to allow the land to rest and plants to be opened. They are a time for man to rest and recuperate, to cede control to HaShem as He works the earth and prepares for the spring. On Shemini Atzeret, we pray for rain, that HaShem may bring the rainy season and begin the Divine work of preparing the earth.
While Heshvan is the beginning of a slower time, a cooler and darker time, it is also the beginning of a period of great rest, for man and earth. Our bodies connect with the natural rhythms of Creation, connecting with that deep need to rest after the seven-month-long cycle of human activity, giving way to the five months of hidden Divine activity. The Hebrew root עצר, from which atzeret is derived, is etymologically related to the root אצר, meaning “to store up.” After this conclusion of the festival cycle, we draw on our spiritual stores to sustain ourselves over the winter. We let go and cede control to HaShem, drawing on the deep well of Being found within, connecting our bodies to the earth as we all experience winter rest together.
“He sets a table for each and every one according to his needs, and He provides each and every body all that it lacks.” May we be sustained this winter as HaShem prepares the earth, and may we find deep rest and strength in anticipation of the cycle of blessing beginning anew in spring.
The following sources can be viewed at www.sefaria.org/sheets/601074