Sh’mini Atzeret: Universality, Now Particularity

(delivered by Rabbi J.B. Sacks on October 6, 2023)

Sukkot represents more clearly than any other festival the dualities of Judaism. Most especially, the holiday holds up the tension between the universality of nature and the particularity of history. The aspect of Sukkot that focuses upon rainfall, harvest, and climate, is an aspect to which everyone can relate. Yet another aspect, the long journey through the wilderness, speaks to the unique experience of the Jewish people.

This tension between the universal and the particular seems especially pronounced in Judaism. The G!d of Israel is the G!d of all humanity, but the religion of Israel is not the religion of all humanity. It is conspicuous that while the other two Abrahamic religions, Christianity and Islam, borrowed much from Judaism, they did not borrow this. They became universalist faiths, believing that everyone ought to embrace the one true religion–their own–and that those who do not are denied the blessings of eternity.

Judaism disagrees. For this it was derided for many centuries, and to some degree it still is today. If Judaism represents religious truth, why should it not be shared with everyone? If there is only one G!d, why is there not only one way to salvation? No doubt that if Judaism had become an evangelizing, conversion-driven religion, as it would have had to, had it believed in universalism, we would have many more Jews today. As I write, there are an estimated 2.2 billion Christians, about 33% of the world’s population, 1.8 billion Muslims, about 24% of the world’s population, and only about 16 million Jews, about 0.2% of the world’s population. The disparity is vast.

Judaism is the road less traveled, because it represents a complex truth that could not be expressed in any other way. The Torah tells a simple story. G!d gave humans the gift of freedom, which they then used not to enhance creation but to endanger it. Adam and Eve broke the first prohibition. Cain, the first human child, became the first murderer. Within a remarkably short space of time, all flesh had corrupted its way on earth, the world was filled with violence, and only one man, Noah, found favor in G!d’s eyes.

After the Flood, G!d made a covenant with Noah, and, through him, with all humanity. Nonetheless, after the hubris of the builders of the Tower of Babel, G!d chose another way. Having established a basic threshold in the form of the Noahide Laws, G!d then chose one man, one family, and eventually one nation, to become a living example of what it is to exist closely and continuously in the presence of G!d. We find in the affairs of humankind universal laws and specific examples. The Noahide covenant constitutes the universal laws.

The way of life of Abraham and Sarah begins the particular Jewish story, but it is one built upon, and intertwined with, the universal story. What this means in Judaism is that the righteous of all the nations have a share with us in the World to Come.^[1] In contemporary terms it means that our common humanity precedes our religious differences. It also means that by creating all humans in G!d’s image, G!d set us the challenge of seeing G!d’s Image in one who is not in our image: whose color, culture, class, creed, and sexuality identity are different from our own.

The ultimate spiritual challenge is to see the trace of G!d in the face of a stranger. Zechariah, in the vision we traditionally read as the haftarah on the first day of Sukkot, puts this precisely. Zechariah asserts that in the End of Days, “A-d-nai shall reign over all the earth; on that day A-d-nai shall be One and G!d’s name One.”^[2] Zechariah thus suggests that all nations will recognise the sovereignty of a single transcendent G!d. This passage from Zechariah is recited daily in the Aleinu prayer.

Yet at the same time, Zechariah envisages the nations participating only in Sukkot, the most universal of the festivals, and the one in which they have the greatest interest since everyone needs rain. He does not envisage them becoming Jews, accepting the mitzvot, the 613 commandments. He does not speak of their conversion. The practical outcome of this dual theology, the universality of G!d and the particularity of Torah, is that we are commanded to be true to our faith, and a blessing to others, regardless of their faith. That is the Jewish way.

Sh’mini Atzeret reminds us of the intimacy Jews have always felt in the presence of G!d. The cathedrals of Europe convey a sense of the vastness of G!d and the smallness of humankind. The small shuls of Tz’fat, where great mystic figures of Judaism prayed,^[3] convey a sense of the closeness of G!d and the greatness of humankind. Jews, except when they sought to imitate other nations, did not build cathedrals. Even the Jerusalem Temple reached its greatest architectural grandeur under King Herod, a man better known for his political ruthlessness than his spiritual sensibilities.^[4]

So, when all the universality of Judaism has been expressed throughout the seven days of Sukkot, there remains something that cannot be universalized: that sense of intimacy with, and closeness to, G!d that we searched for throughout the High Holy Days. So one day remains for us to sense G!d, to feel G!d, to commune with G!d. This is Sh’mini Atzeret.

Sh’mini Atzeret is chamber music, not a symphony. It is quiet time with G!d. We are reluctant to leave, and we dare to think that G!d is reluctant to see us go.

Justice is universal, love is particular. Some things we share with all people everywhere, because we are human. But other things are constitutive of our identity. They are uniquely ours. Most importantly, we think of our relationships with those who form our family.

On Sukkot we are among strangers and friends.

On Shemini Atzeret we are with family.

Chag samei-ach and Shabbat shalom.

CONSIDER:

• If the national mission of the Jewish people is to model the universal values of the Torah, are we doing a good job?
• What makes all of humanity the same? What makes Jews different?
• What themes of Sukkot are universal and relevant to all of humanity?
• Does Sh’mini Atzeret mean that G!d loves the Jewish people more than other peoples?
• How do you balance the need to be a part of and care for all humankind while yet anchoring and living out your Judaism/Jewishness?

^[1] BT Sanhedrin 105a.

^[2] Zechariah 14:9.

^[3] These included Rabbi Isaac Luria and Rabbi Joseph Caro. For more on the mysticism in Tz’fat, see here.

^[4] For more on King Herod, see here