The Eighth Day: A New Beginning

The Eighth Day, called Shemini Atzeret, is the final appointed time of YaHWaH's calendar. It falls on the twenty-second day of the seventh month, immediately after the seven days of Tabernacles, and is a holy convocation and a day of rest. It is often treated as the tail end of Tabernacles, but Scripture gives it its own command and its own assembly. Seven speaks of completion. The eighth speaks of what comes after completion: a new beginning.

The command is given in Leviticus 23:36, 39 and Numbers 29:35-38 (Leviticus 23:36, 39, NASB 1995):

• For seven days you shall present an offering by fire to the LORD your Elohim. On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation and present an offering by fire to the LORD; it is an assembly. You shall do no laborious work.

• On exactly the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the crops of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the LORD for seven days, with a rest on the first day and a rest on the eighth day.

The Hebrew word atzeret comes from atsar, meaning to restrain or hold back. It is an assembly where the people are held back in YaHWaH's presence after the feast is finished. Scripture shows Israel keeping it at the high points of its history. At the dedication of Solomon's Temple, "on the eighth day they held a solemn assembly" (2 Chronicles 7:9), and after the return from exile, "they celebrated the feast seven days, and on the eighth day there was a solemn assembly according to the ordinance" (Nehemiah 8:18).