The Medrash Rabbah on this week's parsha starts with the pasuk in Tehillim:
הוֹצִיאָה מִמַּסְגֵּר נַפְשִׁי לְהוֹדוֹת אֶת שְׁמֶךָ בִּי יַכְתִּירוּ צַדִּיקִים כִּי תִגְמֹל עָלָי
Remove me from my isolation that I may praise Your name, the righteous shall be crowned through me, because You had mercy on me
The Medrash parses the pasuk and applies it to Noach as follows:
הוֹצִיאָה מִמַּסְגֵּר נַפְשִׁי, זֶה נֹחַ שֶׁהָיָה סָגוּר בַּתֵּבָה שְׁנֵים עָשָׂר חֹדֶשלְהוֹדוֹת אֶת שְׁמֶךָ, לָתֵת הוֹדָיָה לִשְׁמֶךָ. בִּי יַכְתִּירוּ צַדִּיקִים,יִתְכַּלְלוּן בִּי צַדִּיקַיָּא. כִּי תִגְמֹל עָלָי, שֶׁגָּמַלְתָּ עָלַי וְאָמַרְתָּ לִי: צֵא מִן הַתֵּבָה
Remove me from my isolation – this refers to Noach who was closed within the ark for 12 months... because You had mercy on me – in that you told me "exit the ark"
This is a fascinating medrash. It understands the pasuk as Noach's hakarat hatov not for his salvation, not for the means to protect his family, not for ending the flood, but for Hashem's great kindness in telling Noach to leave the teiva. This always strikes me. Did Noach need special encouragement, or an invitation to exit the ark that he'd been living inside for twelve months? One would think that the moment the teiva landed, the storm abated, and the opportunity presented itself, Noach would eagerly dash out of the teiva to embrace the new life ahead. But that is not what happened. Noach was hesitant. Noach was stuck.
Waking up on Hoshanah Rabbah to the news that our hostages had returned to their families hit me in an unexpected way. While I know several people for whom the moment was euphoric, my experience was different. I was happy, I was relieved, but the knot in my stomach had not disappeared as I had expected it to. The tefillah for chatufim that I had embedded into my personal shmoneh esrei since October 7th was still reflexively coming out of my mouth.
The two years of worried angst had calcified. Rather than dissipating on its own, the knot required me to actively untie it.
And then came Shemini Atzeret. I am always struck by the contrast between a sentiment as it is expressed on Yom Kippur on the one hand and Shemini Atzeret on the other. In Yom Kippur's neilah we describe our woeful state, our mikdash destroyed, our people dispersed. We lament v'ein shiur rak haTorah hazot -there is nothing left but this Torah. This expression is almost dismissive, inappreciative of our Torah. We can't embrace it because we cannot see past what we have lost.
Not so on Shemini Atzeret. A holiday which stands in stark contrast to the theme-heavy, dramatic, mitzvah-laden, theatrical chagim which preceded it, Shemini Atzeret has no independent character of its own. No specific mitzvot, no identity in the Torah other than being the eighth day of a seven-day holiday. Perhaps the simplicity and blurry nature of Shemini Atzeret is itself the message. Its purpose is to move us back into "real life" – taking the experience and the growth from the last month and trying to make it a constant, a reality in the absence of props. On Shemini Atzeret we cut through the noise and revel in our relationship with Hashem in a very simple, real, and organic way.
In this sense, Shemini Atzeret's nature is that of transition. Its lack of definition provides us with a much-needed paradigm shift which helps us phase from one reality to another. Our rabbis highlighted the transitional power of Shemini Atzeret by later anchoring Shemini Atzeret to Simchat Torah, the celebration of Torah. After all the fantastic theatrics of the previous holidays have passed, ein shiur rak haTorah hazot – all we have is this Torah. But this time, the transitional power of Shemini Atzeret has shifted our neilah mentality from a krechtz, a groan, into comfort, gratitude, and celebration.
I understand why Noach was stuck. It is not always easy to shake off the scars from the storm raging around us. I understand why HaKadosh Baruch Hu needed to tell him tzei min hateiva, and why the medrash sees that nudge as a chesed worthy of recognition. I understand the need for a Shemini Atzeret to move us from the chagim experience to our daily routine, and from a mindset focused on what we have lost to the glorious promise of what lies ahead. It was Shemini Atzeret that two years ago transitioned us into the storm, and Shemini Atzeret that now helped lift us out.
As we embrace a hopeful new reality, even as our tefillot and worries shift, may we feel the full bracha of return –ושבו בנים לגבולם. And may the transitional promise of Shemini Atzeret, along with the guiding hand and encouraging words of HaKadosh Baruch Hu, help us – after two long years – take our first steps as we emerge from the teiva.
