The Jewish Holidays in october 2026

Hoshanna Rabba (Great Supplication)  and Sheminni Atzeret (the Eighth Day of Solemn Assembly) are two holidays at the end of Succoth and therefore the last of the Harvest Festival Days.  

Symbolically, Hoshanna Raba, the 7th day of Succoth, is the last chance to repent for the New Year.  The Book of Life may have been closed on Yom Kippur, but it is not sealed until Hoshanna Raba.  

Shemini Atzeret is its own holiday, and technically not a part of Succoth.  In traditional synagogues, Ecclesiastes (Kohelet) is read as well as prayers for rain.   

Simchat Torah means "Rejoicing for the Torah."  We celebrate the Torah by reading the closing verses of Deuteronomy and the opening verses of Genesis.   Thus the cycle of reading the Torah begins anew.  In traditional congregations, the Torahs are carried around the sanctuary seven times.