“The eighth day shall he a time of retreat for you when you shall do no mundane work.” (Numbers 29:35)
Rashi (ibid.) explains this verse in the name of the Midrash (Tanchuma, Pinchos 16): “During the seven days of the Sukkoth Festival, Israel offered seventy sacrifices for the seventy nations of the world. Now, however, as they propose to set forth on their way home, God says to them, ‘I beg of you, make Me a small banquet so that I may take some pleasure exclusively with you.’ ”
Let us attempt to understand why God commanded only “a small banquet.” If He had commanded us to offer up many sacrifices, we would have gladly done so. Also, why should the “small banquet” be on Sh’mini Atzeret, after we offered the seventy bullocks, and not on some other festival day?
Our situation may have the following hint to give us. As is well known, the seventy bullocks that were sacrificed for each of the seventy nations of the world were brought so that divine abundance would also flow to the seventy nations, because all divine abundance flows to the world through the Jewish people.
But it can happen, God forbid, that our sins upset the balance, and the nations receive so much of the abundance that they are able to constrain us thus. Then, we are left with no more than what is by any definition a very meager feast, meager in physical sustenance and meager in spiritual content. Still, our hearts must not give way; we must take courage and bolster ourselves, offering to God at least the “small feast” that we do have, and from which the Holy Blessed One can derive some pleasure.
And similarly, when we remind ourselves of the holiness of the days of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkoth, and even of the Sh’mini Atzeret and Simchat Torah Festivals that we celebrated years ago, we may think to ourselves, “Of what account are these Festivals we celebrate now?” But our hearts must not fall and we must take the courage to make a small feast for God, as well as we are able to in the circumstances. This applies not only to Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah but also into the future. Right from Bereshith (The Beginning) we must establish fixed times for Torah study, as well as we can in our situation—in straits, in pain, howsoever—and God will have mercy and rescue us immediately and forthwith.