Shmini Atzeretשְׁמִינִי עֲצֶרֶת

Shmini Atzeret (שמיני עצרת — “the Eighth [day] of Assembly”) is a Jewish holiday. It is celebrated on the 22nd day of Tishrei, the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar. In the Diaspora, an additional day is celebrated, the second day being separately referred to as Simchat Torah. In Israel and Reform Judaism, the holidays of Shmini Atzeret and Simchat Torah are combined into a single day and the names are used interchangeably. Although it directly follows the seven days of Sukkot, the Talmud treats Shmini Atzeret as a "festival in its own right" (regel bifnei atzmo) rather than the eighth day of Sukkot. The name "Atzeret" is read in two complementary ways: as "stopping" or "cessation" from work, and as "tarrying" or "gathering," traditionally pictured as God asking Israel to linger one extra day after the long pilgrimage season. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch described it as a day to "store up" the gratitude and devotion built over the festival cycle. Its two distinctive religious additions give the day its character: the Yizkor memorial service, recited in Ashkenazi communities, and Tefillat Geshem, the prayer for rain that formally opens the rainy-season petitions in the liturgy.

Shmini Atzeret falls on 22 Tishrei, in autumn, the day after the seventh day of Sukkot. In Israel and in Reform Judaism it is observed as a single day that also incorporates Simchat Torah; in the Diaspora (traditional/Orthodox and Conservative practice) it is the first of two days, with the second day, 23 Tishrei, observed separately as Simchat Torah.

The Torah reading for Shmini Atzeret is Deuteronomy 14:22-16:17, divided into the festival aliyot, with the maftir drawn from the Sukkot-cycle Musaf passage for the eighth day, Numbers 29:35-30:1. The Haftarah is I Kings 8:54-66, in which Solomon dismisses the people after dedicating the Temple, fitting for an "eighth-day assembly" theme (some Sephardic and other rites use a slightly different range). The Torah and Haftarah are chanted in their regular cantillation; Shmini Atzeret does not have a unique cantillation system the way Eicha (Tisha B'Av), Esther (Purim), or the High Holiday trope do, and most rites read no Megillah on the day (Kohelet is read on the Shabbat of Sukkot). The day's distinctive melody is liturgical rather than cantillation: the Musaf and the Geshem prayer for rain are sung to a solemn Days-of-Awe-style nusach, and the leader wears a white kittel.

In Ashkenazi communities Yizkor, the memorial prayer, is recited on Shmini Atzeret, one of the four annual Yizkor occasions, and a 24-hour memorial candle is often lit beforehand; Sephardic custom has no Yizkor, and the Hashkavah prayer for the departed fills a similar role. During the Musaf repetition the cantor leads Tefillat Geshem, a series of piyutim petitioning for rain that officially begins the rainy-season insertion "mashiv ha-ruach u-morid ha-geshem," continued until Passover; the leader wears a kittel and uses a High Holiday-style melody. The festival also marks the transition out of Sukkot: the lulav and etrog are no longer taken and Sukkot is no longer mentioned in the prayers. In the Diaspora many still eat meals in the sukkah on Shmini Atzeret but without reciting the "leishev ba-sukkah" blessing, a farewell to the sukkah; in Israel eating in the sukkah generally stops. As a full Yom Tov, the day carries festival work restrictions, candle-lighting, Kiddush, and festive meals.