The Oracle of Kabbalah - Mystical Teachings of the Hebrew Letters

Why do you think many Jewish holidays last eight days?

Here’s my drash on the subject from the chapter on the eighth letter of the Aleph Beit, Chet, in The Oracle of Kabbalah:

Gary Snyder writes in his poem “Walking Home from the ‘Duchess of Malfi’”:

Pains of death and love,
Birth and war,
wreckt earth,

bless
With more love,

not less.

This way of blessing is not an easy way. Chet’s is not an easy path. It takes time to ripen into the wisdom, chokhmah (another Chet word), of embodying this attitude towards life and fear. Many Jewish holidays last for eight days, suggesting that a period of time is required before we pass through the gateway and reach completion. Transformation doesn’t usually happen all at once.

The eight days of Chanukah, for example, honor the cycling of time at the winter solstice and recall the miracle of one day’s worth of oil lasting for eight. By eating and living in humble sukkot, huts, for the eight days of Sukkot, we remember the forty years that the Jews dwelt in huts during their sojourn in the Sinai. In the Diaspora, Passover is observed for eight days to commemorate the escape from Egypt and the Hebrews’ long years of wandering in the desert. By lasting for eight days, these holidays allow us to deepen into sacred time and to feel more deeply how our ancestors struggled through the challenges of life.