Rachel Goldberg-Polin
speaker
968 appearances
2 recordings
1 series
first heard Jul 2026
last heard 6 Sep
Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Sep 2026 with 1.
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So the final day of Sukkot ends and flows immediately into what is called Shmini Atsaret.
Atsaret means stop.
And with the exception of a very short prayer for rain that is added to the prayer service, there are no rituals on Shmini Atsaret.
And I think of this as everything that's been experienced now in the 50 plus days since Elul, the first.
of El as sort of like there are these families that get together for these huge family reunions and there's so much going on and there's big meals and a petting zoo and a moon bounce and a disco and everybody's hanging out and then finally it gets to be Sunday night.
People are already heading out, some, and people change into sweatpants.
And it's just quiet, quality time.
And we have Rashi, Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki, who was the famous French medieval commentator, scholar, who says we start this whole period with Rosh Hashanah Yom Kippur with the dynamic of God as a parent.
And when we get to Sukkot, the relationship shifts, and God is really more like a partner or spouse.
And so what's happening on the eighth day is that God is sort of detaining us, is atsering us, stopping us, not wanting the date to end.
I think of it as, you know, like when back in the days, many, many moons ago in January.
I'll be married 30 years, about when you would go on a date and you didn't want the date to end.
you'd kind of drag your feet at the end and you're walking slower and slower to where, you know, the date is gonna end and then someone will say, You wanna come up for coffee?
And I think of Shmini Yatzeret as God saying you want to come up for coffee.
And it is usually our holidays have these unique rituals, as we're mentioning before, that you know, we have Matza on Passover, we have Megillan Purim, or the Manorah or Hanukkian, Hanukkah.
But after much fanfare and celebration, we now have an absence of ritual, with the exception of the rain prayer.
Started this whole long process, and now we are ideally at the top of the experience, and we're pausing to digest the view.
When I was using that analogy before and saying, you know, we're now at the top of Mount Everest, it would be such a shame if you get to the top and you say, We made it, bye, and you turn and start heading down.
No, Shminiat Sarah is you're at the top, stop.
Enjoy the view.
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