"We're number one! We're number one!" In 1969, a tall lanky
10 year old boy sitting in Shea Stadium in Flushing, New
York, joined tens of thousands of other ecstatic fans in this
chant as the New York Mets won the playoffs.
Had this young man been invited to join in the celebration,
he undoubtedly would have began to chant with the team as
though intoxicated, "We're number one! We're number one!" One
of the players might have asked him, "Hey kid, did you say
that `we're number one?' Who's "we?" What position do you
play?"
Indeed, the player would have a good point, would he not? How
could this young man call himself part of this collective
"we"? Is it not the players who wear the uniform, play the
games, and work out at the practices who bear the exclusive
right to be identified as the "we" of the team?
On the festival of Shemini Atzeres/Simchas Torah, which in
Eretz Yisroel is celebrated as a single day, the Jewish
nation rejoices. There are several reasons that we rejoice,
one is that we are now participating in a siyum, a
celebration in honor of completing the annual cycle of
studying the Torah. This is the significance of Simchas
Torah.
On the other side of the same coin lies Shemini Atzeres which
Rashi in Chumash says comes from the root "la'atzor --
to hold back." Chazal bring a moshol about a king who
has a special friend and wishes to make a banquet to honor
him. He invites many guests to participate in this banquet to
give his special guest the honor that he deserves and, as the
guests depart, the honored one stops to say thank you and
good-bye when the king pulls him aside and tells him that all
of the guests of the banquet were invited in his honor, but
now let them depart and let the king's special friend "hold
back" and stay one more day alone with the king.
What is the connection of what is described by the Sages as
the "solemn convocation" of Shemini Atzeres and the ebullient
rejoicing of Simchas Torah? How can two seemingly emotionally
polar extreme days be celebrated in one festival?
Furthermore, why is this festival located in the calendar
where it is? Would it not make more sense to arrange the
siyum of the Torah to fall around Shavuos when we
celebrate the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai?
The opening line of the hakofos of Simchas Torah by
which we initiate the ceremony of dancing with the sifrei
Torah reads, "Ato hor'eiso loda'as, ki Hashem hu
Ho'Elokim, ein od milvado -- you have been instructed to
understand that Hashem is the Lord there is none other." This
line is as applicable to Rosh Hashana, or Yom Kippur, or to
Succos as it is Simchas Torah. Why does it first appear in
the liturgy on the day of Simchas Torah?
The entire period of time beginning with the first of Elul is
a period of drawing closer to Hashem. "Arye sho'ag mi lo
yirah?" (Amos ). The word "Arye" is a hint to
the four times of judgment: "alef" signifying the
month of Elul, "resh" Rosh Hashana, "yud" Yom
Kippur, and "hei" Hashana Rabba. These are the periods
of the year when we hear the "lion's roar" the royal
pronouncement that the King of kings sits in Divine judgment,
at such times "who shall not fear?"
Fear under such circumstances is "natural," indeed it is the
"normal" reaction; when a person walks in pitch dark along a
high bluff and shows no fear because "nothing could possibly
happen to him," he appears to need "some help" -- mental help
-- quick!! It is only after the last of these days of
judgment when we have achieved the ultimate level of fear
that we are ready for this new stage of love of "ein od
milvado," "there is none other," in other words, there is
no power or significance in the universe except Hashem.
This recognition can only come after "seeing" Hashem as it
were, becoming aware that the King of kings is responsible
for everything that happens in the universe. This awe at the
same time as causing us to retract into ourselves and
introspect, ultimately causes us to seek to identify with the
Source of this awesomeness by love of Hashem. It is only
after the Yomim Noraim and "living with Hashem in Hashem's
House," the Succah, that one has the spiritual acuity to
approach the "ein od milvado" of Shemini
Atzeres/Simchas Torah.
The "atzeres" of Shemini Atzeres is only possible
because of the simcha of Simchas Torah. The Midrash
tells us a parable of a king who has only one child, a
daughter. When she reaches marriageable age, the king seeks
and finds for her a proper match. After the joyous ceremony,
he takes aside his new son-in-law and emotionally addresses
him: "You have taken the hand of my daughter in marriage. To
ask you to stay close to me I cannot, she is your wife and
you may take her where you wish. On the other hand, to part
with her I also cannot, for she is my only child. Therefore,
I beseech you, please accede to my one request, wherever you
go to build your home, build one extra room for me, so that I
may come and visit when I wish and it may be as I if I have
not lost her."
The Midrash illustrates the juxtaposition of the
giving of the Torah in parshios Yisro and Mishpotim
with the commandment to build the Mishkan which
follows immediately afterwards. The Mishkan, as well
as the Beis Hamikdash afterwards, was the "room" for
the King to visit his only child, the Torah, and not feel
that He has lost her.
So too here, the king says to his special guest, "I have made
this entire celebration for you, but I have not had the
opportunity to enjoy you as we have been surrounded by other
guests the entire time. Please stay behind one more day so
that we can have the opportunity to enjoy each other's
presence properly."
What sets this "special guest" apart from the rest of the
guests? This special guest is married to the daughter of the
king!
After Rosh Hashana, when the entire world passes before
Hashem in judgment, one by one as sheep being counted by
their shepherd, and Yom Kippur, when only the Jewish people
know the secret of true repentance and achieve atonement and
a "new lease on life," and finally the festival of Succos
when the Jewish people carry the lulav as proof that they
have emerged victorious in judgment in their legal battle
with the nations and enter into Hashem's House the Beis
Hamikdash and the Succah, and offer sacrifices on behalf
of these nations -- comes Shemini Atzeres/Simchas Torah when
the King of kings asks us for a favor, that we remain behind
when the nations of the world depart so that we can celebrate
with the King alone for one more day! Why? Because we have
the daughter of the King, the Torah; the "solemn convocation"
of Shemini Atzeres fits perfectly with the seemingly
contradictory day of Simchas Torah, as indeed they are
celebrated in the "palace of the King," Eretz Yisroel!
When we have traveled this arduous spiritual journey from
Rosh Hashanah to Shemini Atzeres/Simchas Torah sincerely,
constantly working on ourselves, and our relationship to
Hashem and His Torah, we become "part of the team." Our
personal relationship with Hashem grows increasingly more
unique and intimate, as we work on "fearing" or "seeing"
Hashem more clearly, we are welcomed into the inner sanctums
of the King's chambers where only the King's "elect" are
welcome. This period of introspection and anxiety over the
sentence that will be passed on us, is in essence a period of
tremendous closeness to Hashem as the Sages instruct on the
10 days of Repentance, "dirshu Hashem behimotz'o, kero'uhu
behiyaso korov."
This process of identifying with the "team," accentuated
every step of the way by first blowing the shofar to set us
apart, then repenting through vidui and regret, then
marching around the bimah with the lulav, the scepter
of victory, only culminates with our siyum of the
Torah when we rejoice for being part of Hashem's team, as it
were, having married His only daughter!
Long ago, I felt "part of it," having sweated and cried for
my team along their arduous climb to the top, and I now felt
justified in joining in the jubilant cry "We're number
one!"
As Jews sweating and crying for the success of our team, the
nation of Israel, we will certainly be invited to the
celebration of our own final victory: Shemini Atzeres/Simchas
Torah! Attaching ourselves individually and collectively to
"Hashem Echad" "the One G-d," we are truly "number one!"
