Tonight, we begin shemini aseret which in Israel is a single
day. For us in Galut, we divide the two days of chutz la aretz into the two
parts of the holiday. We come to think of tomorrow as the day of tikun hageshem
where we praise Hashem for bringing rain and Sunday, Simcha Torah, as
celebrating the Torah. But in reality,
it’s a single 8th day of the holiday. And the question was asked, what’s it all
about?  

We always attempt to connect the holidays of this month,
which begin with Rosh Hashana and conclude with Simcha Torah. 

Rosh Hashana relates to Adam. It is the day Adam was created.
It is the day, he was commanded not to eat from the tree, It was the day he
sinned and that was the day G-d mercifully pushed aside or forward the punishment,
setting a precedent as a day of judgment where Hashem will hopefully, treat us
with mercy. 

Now we always connect the Rosh Hashana with Yom Kippur as bookends
of Aseret Yemey Teshuba, but Yom Kippur follows Rosh Hashana 2449 years and 10
days later. We left Egypt in Nisan or April and we sinned with a golden the
golden calf in Tammuz or July. Moses went back up a few more times begging for
forgiveness. And it is on Yom Kippur that Moses returns and again we have some
level of forgiveness or pushing off the punishment. We can suggest even though
there was no Yom Kippur in the beginning, Hashem created the world based on the
blue print presented in the Torah. And what appears to be coincidence, is
really part of the big plan.  

Now let’s look at Sukkot which falls five days after Yom
Kippur with four intermediary days between the two. We can suggest that that
holiday should have fallen in April or Nissan, but the rabbis explain that the
reason why it’s not as April because it would be natural to go camping or move
to an outdoor area when the sun comes out in the weather gets warm, and here
we’re doing it when the weather starts to change and people are returning back
inside to their homes. 

A possible answer is that when the people sinned with the
golden calf, they deserve to lose everything, Hashem mercifully refused to withhold
food and water, because they couldn’t survive without either of those, but Hashem
could take away the clouds. So, after they sin with the golden calf in Tammuz
or July, the clouds are removed which must’ve been a rough time of year to
remove the clouds and then what happens? 

Moses returns on Yom Kippur with the second set of luchot or
tablets and the next day he begins the fundraising campaign for the Mishkan. Moses
collects all he asks for and more over the next few days because the people
want to feel the presence of Hashem among them again to the point where he has
to tell them enough. And so they begin building the Mishkan on the first day of
Sukkot and with that the clouds return. With that in mind, it makes sense to
celebrate this holiday, on the day that the clouds returned because Sukkot celebrates
the clouds of glory.