Ask the
Clergy
Is celebrating the
Jewish holidays
worth our time and energy?
by
Senior Rabbi, Alan Green
Published in the Jewish Post on
Wednesday,
February 20, 2008
In my last column, we spoke about the holidays from the point of
view of the solar cycle. In this second concluding article, we will
speak about the lunar cycle, and how solar and lunar cycles each
enrich and reinforce the other. This wonderful analysis can be
found in the book, Seasons of Our Joy, by Rabbi Arthur Waskow.
To understand the relationship between solar and lunar cycles in the
Jewish year imagine if you will, an egg whose yolk is resting
against the edge of the shell. The large oval of the egg shell
represents the solar cycle; the smaller yolk represents a single
month—specifically Tishrei, the Biblical seventh month of the year.
In the month of Tishrei, we celebrate some extremely significant
holidays, among them Rosh Hashanah—the New Year. Parallel to the
holiday of Pesach in the solar cycle, which comes in the Biblical
first month of Nissan, and which celebrates the birth of the Jewish
people, Rosh Hashanah is a holiday of new beginnings. According to
the rabbis, Adam and Eve were created on Rosh Hashanah. So it is
most appropriate that we focus on Teshuvah and spiritual renewal at
the precise moment of the birth of the new moon.
Then on the tenth of Tishrei, as the moon moves towards fullness, we
observe Yom Kippur. This is the holiest day of the Jewish year
(aside from Shabbat)—the day when we are up close and personal with
God and our own imperfections. Yom Kippur is parallel to Shavuot in
the solar cycle—that day when the Jewish people as a whole stood
close to God at Mt. Sinai, and received the essence of Jewish life
in the form of the Torah. According to the rabbis, God forgave the
sin of the Golden Calf on Yom Kippur, and gave the second set of the
Ten Commandments at this time—a clear echo of Shavuot.
Sukkot comes on the fifteenth of Tishrei, on the full moon. Here,
the lunar and solar cycles touch and merge (remember the yolk
resting against the oval egg shell). Sukkot plays the same role in
both lunar and solar cycles—spiritual fullness and fulfillment at
harvest time. This is the messianic moment prophesied by Isaiah
when he said, “the light of the moon will be like the light of the
sun.”
Finally, Sh’mini Atzeret arrives on the twenty-second of Tishrei.
The festival which marks Moses’ death and the onset of winter occurs
at the simultaneous waning of both sun and moon. The lunar “yolk”
and the solar “egg” diverge, moving at different speeds towards
death, and eventual rebirth.
Why then is celebrating the Jewish holidays worth our time and
energy? Rabbi Waskow writes, “The very interweaving of the themes of
history and nature, the human life cycle, and moments of spiritual
experience, remind us that in some sense, all the realms of life are
dancing with each other. The circles of the sun and of the moon; of
a single human life…and an entire people’s history of renewal; of
every quiet act of newness, birth, creation—all are echoes of the
One Circle. Let us then join the circle, and begin the dance.”
Do you have a question you would like answered in this column? Email
information@shaareyzedek.mb.ca. |
