MAFTIR FOR SHEMINI ATZERET AND Simḥat Torah

On the eighth day, you shall hold an assembly: you shall do no laborious work. And you shall bring a burnt-offering, an offering consumed by fire, of pleasing aroma to the LORD: one bull, one ram, and seven yearling male lambs; they shall be without blemish. The meal-offerings and the libations for the bull, the ram and the lambs in their number shall be according to the ordinance, and one goat for a sin-offering; all of this aside from the regular daily burnt-offering with its meal-offering and its libation. You shall offer these to the LORD at your appointed festival-times, besides for your vows and your freewill-offerings, your burnt-offerings, your meal-offerings, your libations, and your peace-offerings. And Moses told the children of Israel, according to all that the LORD had commanded Moses.

HAFTARA FOR SHEMINI ATZERET OUTSIDE ISRAEL

When Solomon had finished uttering this prayer and this plea to the LORD, he rose up from before the altar of the LORD, and bowed down upon his knees, his palms outstretched towards the heavens. And he stood and blessed all the congregation of Israel, in a loud voice, saying: “Blessed be the LORD, who has granted rest to His people Israel just as He promised; no word of the good that the LORD promised through His servant has failed us. May the LORD our God be with us as He was with our ancestors; may He never leave us or forsake us. May He incline our hearts towards Him, that we follow in all His ways and keep His commands and all the statutes and laws with which He charged our ancestors. Let these words with which I have pleaded with the LORD be close to the LORD our God day and night, that He do justice for His servant, and justice for His people Israel, day after day; so that all the peoples of the earth will know that the LORD is God. There is no other. And may your hearts be wholly with the LORD our God, to follow His statutes and to keep His commands as you do on this day.” Then the king and all of his people, Israel, brought offerings before the LORD. The peace offering that Solomon brought to the LORD consisted of twenty-two thousand heads of cattle and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep; and thus did the king and all the people of Israel dedicate the House of the LORD. On that day, the king consecrated the center of the Courtyard before the House of the LORD, for there he prepared the burnt-offering, the meal-offering and fats of the peace-offerings; for the Brass Altar that stood before the LORD was too small to contain all the burnt-offerings and the meal-offerings and the fat of the peace-offerings. It was then that Solomon celebrated the Festival, and all of Israel his people with him, a vast congregation from all the land, from the border of Ḥamat to the river of Egypt, before the LORD our God for seven days and for seven days more, fourteen days all told. And then, on the eighth day, Solomon sent the people on their way, and they blessed the king, going back to their tents happy and buoyant of heart over all the goodness that the LORD had performed for His servant, David, and for His people, Israel. And so it was, when Solomon had finished building the House of the LORD and the palace of the king, all of Solomon’s heart’s desire, all that he had wished to do.