i
God lists the year’s holidays.
He begins with Passover,
the holiday of the first month
of the Bible’s year
(not like today,
our calendar beginning
at Rosh HaShanah).
He ends with Sukkot
and Shemini Atzeret:
joint holidays
in the seventh month,
the month when the holidays end.
ii
God speaks of the Exodus in this list.
But not in the context of Passover,
when you would expect.
He mentions the Exodus
with regard to Sukkot.
He says:
Dwell in sukkot—huts;
remember how I made the Children of Israel
dwell in huts
as I took them out
from the Land of Egypt.
*
Not: How I struck Egypt with Plagues.
Not: How I split the Sea.
Simply:
How I made them dwell.
iii
At the culmination of all holidays,
we do not come
to a revolutionary understanding
of the single moment
when God changed the world.
We come to know
the day after:
how the miracle must suffuse
the ways we are,
how we act,
where we wander.
How from that miracle
we are to make homes to live in,
lives to lead.
Sukkot in which we dwell.
______
Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach,
Abe
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