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again, with renewed energies. The joy of completing a tractate with a
siyum is due to the rejuvenation of starting afresh with another portion of
Torah.

Chazal learned the idea of celebrating the completion of a tractate with a
siyum from the celebration Shlomo made when he was granted wisdom.
The joy of Shemini Atzeret is not merely an expression of our happiness
at completing the Torah, but also for the fact that we are granted the
opportunity and the strength to start all over again. After the period of the
Yamim Nora’im, when we received so much spiritual bounty and became
so close to Hashem, He gifted us this holiday of rejoicing with the Torah,
which we just now completed reading and are beginning anew. Shemini
Atzeret is a festival unto itself. However, since it has the potential to bring
the bounty of the Yamim Nora’im and Sukkot upon us for the entire year,
it is called Shemini, or the eighth, as it is the continuation of the festival
of Sukkot that preceded it.

Menashe taught Rav Ashi that just as we cut the bread at the end of the
loaf, where it is baked the best, a person should be judged by his
beginning and end. If a person repented at the end of his life, which began
virtuously, he is to be judged kindly, regardless of mistakes he made in
the interim.

David claimed that Shlomo’s life began in virtue and ended in sanctity,
as he did teshuvah for his few sins, and even suffered the travails of exile
in order to attain atonement.
Parashat Bereishit is read in part on Shemini Atzeret to teach us the
monumental lesson that we should always connect the end of one stage to
the beginning of the next.

On Simchat Torah, we read parashat Bereishit only until the end of the
Creation. Since Hashem’s Names are hinted at in the creation of man,
reading this parashah enables us to receive the influence of Hashem’s

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