I find that people are often confused about Simchat Torah because they think it is a separate holiday from Shemini Atzeret. In Chutz la’aretz (outside of Israel), we observe two days of Shemini Atzeret, but we call the first day Shemini Atzeret and the second day Simchat Torah. In Israel Shemini Atzeret is only one day, and it is called Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah. For technical reasons, we separate them in Chutz la’aretz, but they are really both Shemini Atzeret.
As we mentioned previously, Simchat Torah is actually a modern addendum to the Shemini Atzeret holiday, added about 1,000 years ago. The custom became that Shemini Atzeret is the day we celebrate finishing the annual cycle for the weekly reading of the Chumash, the five books of Moses, and beginning anew. We also discussed previously how Shemini Atzeret corresponds to Shavuot in certain respects. This is reflected in the fact that Shavuot is the day we celebrate receiving the Torah, and Shemini Atzeret is the day we celebrate completing the Torah and begin reading it again.
The fundamental difference between the holidays, however, is that Shavuot is an intellectual holiday, a day focused mostly on studying the Torah. Traditionally, we stay up the entire night of Shavuot, immersed in Torah study. In contrast, Simchat Torah is a more emotional day, where we celebrate the Torah itself and dance (in circles) with the physical Torah scrolls.
Shavuot corresponds to the high spiritual level the Jewish people were on when they received the Torah at Mount Sinai, comparable to the level of Adam and Eve before the transgression of eating from the Etz Hadaat (tree of knowledge) in Gan Eden (the Garden of Eden). Before Adam’s fall, he engaged with God directly (so to speak), and he was on a higher spiritual level than ordinary humans. On the other hand, Shemini Atzeret follows Yom Kippur, the day God forgave us for the subsequent sin of the golden calf we committed at Mount Sinai and accepted us with all our human frailty. The tradeoff with falling off our pedestal and coming down to earth is that, unlike angels, we can express ourselves emotionally.
In a sense, we can look at this entire period of Rosh Hashana to Shemini Atzeret as a journey from the Gan Eden of Shavuot to the Gan Eden of Sukkot. It is certainly no coincidence that Rosh Hashana, the beginning of this holiday season, is the day when Adam and Eve were created and placed in the Garden of Eden. And Yom Kippur is the day that rectifies the sin of Adam and Eve because it’s the day when the Jewish people were forgiven for the sin of the Golden Calf, a transgression that the Talmud tells us was a reenactment of the fall from the Garden of Eden. Following Yom Kippur, Sukkot brings us back to the Garden of Eden, albeit now as part of the physical world. The mitzvot (commandments) of Sukkot, the four species, and the sukkah are deeply connected to nature, and reminiscent of Gan Eden. Gan Eden is also a symbol of bliss, and Sukkot is called zman simchateinu, (the holiday of happiness) to help us experience at least a bit of the bliss that awaits us in the World to Come. The sukkah reminds us we don’t need external materialism to make us happy and to prove it, we live for a week in a temporary hut.
On Shemini Atzeret, our last day, we prepare for the upcoming year by celebrating being imperfect humans. We can have the Torah and a relationship with God even though we’re not perfect, something that was impossible on Shavuot. We dance with the Torah with all of our human emotions. We express our love for Torat Chaim, a Torah that is a guide to our imperfect lives, with the hope that we can bring a positive perspective to the mistakes we will inevitably make throughout the year. Chag Sameach. Shana tova.