Stay One More Day: How We Take the King With Us

This weekend we have an amazing opportunity.

The holiday of Sukkos can be compared to a great party that a king makes for his entire nation: seven days of celebration. At the end of the seven days, as everybody is heading home, the king turns to his children and says, stay with me one more day. Everybody else can go home, but you stay with me one more day, because when you leave, it will be difficult for me.

״קָשָׁה עָלַי פְּרִידַתְכֶם״ Your parting is difficult for me. — Rashi on Vayikra 23:36

Sukkos is the seven-day festival, and the whole world celebrates, because there is a connection between Sukkos and all the nations. But the children of Hashem, the Jewish people, are told: stay with me one more day. That is Shemini Atzeres and Simchas Torah, the last day before we go out into the year. Hashem says, just spend one more day together.

But how does one more day solve anything? If the parting is hard between the King and His children, it will be just as hard again a day later.

Here is the amazing message. Somehow, through Shemini Atzeres and Simchas Torah, the children don't leave the King at all.

How? By dancing together as one. We all dance. We all express ourselves in joy, with movement, with dancing, something equally accessible to every single person. Not through learning, where there are differences and different levels, but by coming together and celebrating together.

When we do that, we bond with Hashem in a special way, and we take the King with us through the entire year. We don't leave. We have the opportunity for a truly divine year, and this finale of the holiday season is the chance to make it happen.

So let's dance. Let's be happy. Chag Sameach!

Recorded as a voice note before Shemini Atzeres and Simchas Torah, 2026.