Like many of you, I sometimes struggle to celebrate our Jewish
festivals with joy. When the festivals
come upon us, I have been guilty of thinking of them as a burden, to work
around with the other routines that normally order my life. Many of you also have such routines. Organisations which you belong to, for which
the Jewish calendar is not a consideration, whose meetings sometimes end up on
Jewish days of obligation. School
holidays, times when those of you with school-aged children want to take the
opportunity to go away as a family. This,
even if the holiday occurs at the same time as an important Jewish observance. Even something as simple – and easy to
re-schedule! – as a weekly Mah Jong game. If
we’re honest, we sometimes take it as an imposition that a Jewish festival would
trump any or all of the above.
But the importance
of the fixed, sacred occasions of the year cannot be over-emphasised. As my colleague Fred Morgan points out in his
drash on this week’s Torah reading, no less than the Great Rashi informed us
that the very first commandment given in the Torah, is that of creating a
sacred calendar. It is implicit in
Genesis 1:1. The second commandment
given – just in case you were wondering! – is to be fruitful and multiply…
In this week’s
portion, we read a re-stating of the laws of the festivals. These laws are repeated in each of the last
four books of the Torah: Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. And
the sacred occasions that are commanded in the Torah are essentially seven. The weekly Sabbath. Pesach.
The Counting of the Omer. Shavu’ot. Rosh Hashanah. Yom Kippur.
And Sukkot. In the segment which
we’ve read together today (Leviticus 23:1-22), we read about Pesach through
Shavu’ot.
When I point out
that these seven occasions are the only special days commanded in the Torah, I
don’t mean to detract from the other festive and commemorative days. I don’t mean to say that the fast of Tisha B’av
doesn’t matter. Or the joyous day of Simchat
Torah. Or Chanukah, the Festival of
Light. All of these are important. When planning our year, we should account for
where we will be to observe or celebrate all these occasions, and others. They provide the framework for the sacred
rhythm of the year.
What exactly do
I mean by this phrase, “sacred rhythm”?
As you
remember, last week’s Torah portion was Kedoshim, meaning Holy. It comes from the opening words of the
reading: You shall be Holy, for I the
Lord your God am Holy. The word
means set apart, unique, reserved for a specific purpose. Although we might disagree among ourselves
as to what is the nature of that purpose, and exactly how we are to be
set apart, this premise is one of the basic doctrines of Jewish life.
The term ‘sacred’
is closely related to ‘holy.’ ‘Sacred’
means revered, due to association with ‘holiness.’ The distinction does not even exist in
Hebrew, where ‘kadosh’ expresses both concepts. But the two words do exist side-by-side, very
closely related, in English.
The calendar of
observances, those fixed occasions that are commanded in either the Written or
the Oral Torah, are one of the important tools that enable us to be holy. That’s why I say that the calendar of
observances gives us the “sacred rhythm” that enables us to live a meaningful
Jewish life. An important principle of
the Jewish way of viewing life, is that things are ‘fixed’ in order to override
our whims and desires. That’s why we
have liturgical prayer and worship, regulated by a framework set long ago, with
important values expressed through the very structure of that framework.
Without this
calendar this is no Jewish life. Without
it, there is only the theoretical knowledge of Torah. This may or may not have a positive effect on
us at any given time. But it’s too
important to leave to chance. If we, as
Jews, truly have a sacred purpose in being Jews, then we need the
hands-on aspect that makes our faith real, and in a constant way. We need to feel obligated to mark the
sacred occasions of the year in their time.
And yes, we need to greet and observe them joyously when joy is
called for.
But even though the calendar observances can be seen as an end in
themselves, our reading this morning provides a very strong hint as to what
this is really all about. (Our
reading this morning from the portion, was Leviticus 23:1-22) As you remember, in the last verse of the
reading (verse 22), there is what seems to be an abrupt change of subject. In the previous verse, we’re being told the
laws of the sacrifice for Shavu’ot, and then suddenly we’re being told to
remember to leave the corners of our fields un-harvested, to leave the crops of
the corners for the poor. This is not
really a change of subject, rather the juxtaposition tells us what these festivals
are really for.
The whole of Jewish observance, the whole notion of the Jews being set
apart, is for the purpose of making the world a better place. All of the ‘tools’ we have been given – the Sabbath
and festivals, kashrut, everything – is for the purpose of making us agents of
goodness in the world. When we allow the
sacred observances to positively affect us, it is so that we would bring
goodness by doing good.As such, these occasions should trump organisational meetings, school holidays, and yes, even Mah Jong games. We need to mark them in our diaries and year-planners so that any and every additional opportunity that might come up, is always considered against any existing Jewish obligation that might interfere, and trump, the former. Yes, these sacred rhythms make us holy. And if we are unwilling to be holy, then we might as well be at the shopping mall, as here in shule today. Shabbat shalom.
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