Ask the
Clergy
Why Should We Celebrate
Jewish Holidays?
by
Senior Rabbi, Alan Green (00-Present)
Published in the Jewish Post on
Wednesday,
January 9, 2008
The
Jewish holidays are designed to teach us how to experience the most
profound patterns of life. Also, there is a hidden richness in that
the Jewish holidays actually combine to form a whole greater than
the sum of their parts.
There
are two bases to these holidays—one based on the cycle of the sun,
and one based on the cycle of the moon. In the solar year, there
are four major moments—corresponding to the four seasons—celebrated
in the course of the Jewish year. They are, simultaneously, four
moments in Jewish history; four stages of life; and four states of
spiritual consciousness.
Pesach,
in the spring, celebrates the Exodus from Egypt, the birth of
the Jewish people, the blossoming of freedom, and the blossoming of
new life in its annual triumph over the forces of winter and death.
In life, Pesach represents birth and early childhood.
Shavuot,
the Festival of Weeks, comes seven times seven days plus one
after Pesach, at the onset of summer. Nature is at its
peak. And we’re reminded of the peak experience that the Jewish
people shared at Mt. Sinai, when they met God face to face and
received the Torah. In life, Shavuot corresponds to the
first stages of adulthood, when we’ve developed enough to reach out
to others, get married, and have families of our own.
Sukkot,
the Festival of Booths, is a fall harvest festival when we
remember the forty years of wandering after the Exodus, when we
dwelt safely in the presence of God, despite the fragile huts in
which we lived. Today, most of us live in perfectly stable homes,
but at what cost? We have completely lost the presence of God! So
Sukkot reminds us of that time when the Messiah will come,
and God’s presence will dwell among all mankind. In life, Sukkot
represents retirement from careers, and from parenting—a time when
we’re in a position to reap the benefits of our life’s work.
Sh’mini
Atzeret—the
Eighth Day of Assembly—comes at the tail end of Sukkot. It’s
the signal for the onset of rain, and the coming of winter. It’s a
holiday of inwardness, contraction, and an echo of the death of
Moses, which occurs in the Torah reading at this time. Sh’mini
Atzeret completes the solar cycle. It’s the seed of life gone
underground, which will sprout once again in the spring. We pray
for rain on Sh’mini Atzeret because rain is the basis of new
life. This festival is barely visible--just as a seed buried in the
ground is invisible. Sh’mini Atzeret symbolizes that time
when we review our life as a whole, and face our death, hopefully,
with serenity.
This is
the cycle of the solar year, and of human life, and of Jewish
history—from life, to death, and back to life again.
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