{"id":28415,"date":"2006-06-26T18:34:06","date_gmt":"1970-01-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/production.ou.org\/holidays\/shmini-atzeret\/shmini_atzeret\/"},"modified":"2016-08-07T13:09:05","modified_gmt":"2016-08-07T13:09:05","slug":"shmini_atzeret","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/shmini_atzeret\/","title":{"rendered":"Shmini Atzeret: An Introduction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Shmini Atzeret<\/strong> is the holiday which is celebrated on the eighth day counting from the beginning of &#8220;Sukkot.&#8221; In Israel, it is celebrated for one day, which is a combination of &#8220;Shmini Atzeret&#8221; and &#8220;Simchat Torah.&#8221; In the Diaspora, &#8220;Shmini Atzeret&#8221; and &#8220;Simchat Torah&#8221; are separated, with &#8220;Shmini Atzeret&#8221; being celebrated on the eighth day, and &#8220;Simchat Torah&#8221; being on the ninth day.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"attachment-266x266 size-266x266 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/files\/Number-8-e1470575303914-768x512.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 266px) 100vw, 266px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/files\/Number-8-e1470575303914-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/files\/Number-8-e1470575303914-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/files\/Number-8-e1470575303914.jpg 960w\" alt=\"Number 8\" width=\"266\" height=\"177\" \/>Even though its celebration is keyed to the beginning of Sukkot, Shmini Atzeret is a separate holiday. Because it is considered as separate from Sukkot, the blessing of &#8220;Shehechiyanu\u00a0is recited &#8211; the wife, when she lights the candles ushering in the Holiday and the husband, when he recites the Kiddush at the evening Seudah (festive meal).<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Shmini&#8221; means the eighth; in general, the number eight symbolizes perfection, as it does in the case of &#8220;brit milah,&#8221; the covenant of circumcision. The brit is performed on the eighth day to &#8220;complete,&#8221; as it were, or to instill the potential for perfection, in the human being.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Atzeret&#8221; means &#8220;holding back,&#8221; or that which is held back for the purpose of bringing it to its state of completion. Thus, the name &#8220;Shmini Atzeret&#8221; means the eighth day which is the additional day that brings the seven-day holiday of Sukkot to its state of perfection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shmini Atzeret is the holiday which is celebrated on the eighth day counting from the beginning of &#8220;Sukkot.&#8221; In Israel, it is celebrated for one day, which is a combination of &#8220;Shmini Atzeret&#8221; and &#8220;Simchat Torah.&#8221; In the Diaspora, &#8220;Shmini Atzeret&#8221; and &#8220;Simchat Torah&#8221; are separated, with &#8220;Shmini Atzeret&#8221; being celebrated on the eighth day, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":730,"featured_media":39700,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[342],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-shmini-atzeret"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.9 - 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