[Avodah] "Es Yom HaShmini Ho'Atzeres Hazeh"

[Elazar M. Teitz]

<There are several problems with the Rema and with your  analogies.  
First of all, there are three holidays referred to as  Atzeret.  One is to the seventh day of Pesach.  Another is  Shavuot.  The third is Shmini Atzeret.  The first two are definitely  in the category of CHAG.  So if nothing else, we have a gezera shava  "atzeret - atzeret" to include Shmini Atzeret as a chag.

Second, if you look in Parashat Pinchas, where all of the  chaggim and their respective korbanot are listed, in the last item (Eighth  Day...) it says:  Bayom Hashmini (stop) Atzeret ti'yeh  lachem....
Since this pasuk is part of the listing of all of the chaggim,  obviously Atzeret is the name of this holiday of the eighth day.
This is also why I believe that those who say Shmini Chaga  Hatzeret Hazeh are more correct than those who say  Shmini Atzeret HaChag Hazeh.>

     (1) The Torah nowhere refers to Shavuos as "atzeres." It is the Talmud which does, and which uses the unmodified term to refer exclusively to Shavuos.   

     (2) The fact that the seventh day of Pesach is both atzeres and chag need not imply that the same is true for Succos. See, e.g., the N'tziv's Ha'ameik Davar in D'varim 16:8, where he explains why the term is used for sh'vi'i shel Pesach. Thus, the pasuk in Pinchas does _not_ prove that Atzeres is the name of the chag; it shows that it is an _attribute_ of the day, just as it is an attribute of sh'vi'i shel Pesach. [The N'tziv also explains that Shavuos is an atzeres to Pesach, in that mattan Torah was the culmination of y'tzias Mitzrayim, and is therefore so referred to by Chazal.]

     (3) In Re'eh, the only place where all three r'galim are referred to as chagim, the Torah says "Chag haSuccos ta'aseh l'cha shivas yamim," and there is no mention of sh'mini at all. (Ironically, this is the k'riah of Shmini Atzeres in chutz la'aretz.)

     (4) That sh'mini is not chag is seen even more forcefully in Nechemiah 8:18 -- "Vaya'asu chog shivas yamim; uvayom hash'mini, atzeres kamishpat."

EMT