TorahParsha

Correction & Clarification to my Yom Kippur Post

More than one reader noted that, in the piece I sent for Yom Kippur, I incorrectly mentioned the 10^th of Nissan as the date of Passover. I’d like to explain the original idea that I was trying to describe (an idea that I may have read at least part of in one of Rav Mordecai Breuer's works).

 

***

In Egypt, just before the Exodus, God tells the people to begin their calendar with the month of Nissan. They are to set aside the Paschal lamb on the 10^th of Nissan. Which is five days before Passover, the seven-day holiday that begins on the 15^th. 

Today our calendar begins not in Nissan, but with the month of Tishrei. Rosh HaShanah comes at the start of Tishrei. Yom Kippur comes on the 10^th. And Sukkot, a seven-day holiday, begins on the 15^th.

Obviously the dates of Tishrei -- our season of repentance and forgiveness -- run parallel to the dates Nissan, our season of freedom.

Perhaps because repentance and freedom are variations on a single theme.

 

___

Chag Sameach,

Abe 

Note that, outside of Israel, Passover and Sukkot are observed for one extra day.

Where we live

for Parshat Emor

 

i

At the end of our holidays

our months of service to God

we live in sukkot:

the special tents

through which we recreate

the sukkot God made us dwell in

in the Desert.

*

Elsewhere,

our Desert tents

are simply called ohalim,

tents.

God is not mentioned

in connection with them.

God has His own Tent,

His Mishkan,

that we come to seek.

Now,

at the conclusion of the holidays,

our tents become sukkot from God.

 

ii

Our months of holidays

overlap with our months of work:

spring to fall

planting to harvest.

Our calendar

is God’s calendar.

*

In the midst of God’s discussion of holidays

God says: when you gather your crops in the Land

leave aside food for the poor.

So that we do not work for ourselves;

we work for all of us.

 

iii

In the Desert we each had our own lives

our own tents

apart from each other

separate from God.

*

But now

our time and God’s

our work and God’s service,

the food we grow

and the food others need

are intertwined.

It is with this intertwining

that our tents,

our years,

our lives

become homes for God.

 

___

Shabbat shalom,

Abe

__

Leviticus Chapter 23

www.TorahParsha.com

What should religion teach us?

for Sukkot

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

www.TorahParsha.com

What should religion teach us?

for Parshat Emor 

 

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,

Abe

www.TorahParsha.com

 

 

Booklet for Sukkot 5772

 

As I've done for Yom Kippur, I've collected my thoughts on Sukkot from over the years and included them in a booklet--you can view it here. I hope you enjoy, and please share.

Chag sameach,

Abe

Please pray for for Ayelet Yakira bat Chaya Hinda Matel Nechama

www.TorahParsha.com / @TorahParsha

 

Thought for Sukkot

 

What do we do with the past?

Leviticus Chapter 23

 

i

On Sukkot you live in huts:

so your generations may know that God made you dwell in huts, when He took you from Egypt.

And on Sukkot you take four plants of the Land of Israel:

a citron, a palm-branch, a willow, a myrtle

—and you rejoice before your God.

*
Sukkot comes at the harvest-time, when you have gathered in the fruit of the Land. 

 

ii
On Sukkot you live in the past and the present, at once.

You remember how God took you from Egypt—into the Desert, toward the Land.

You celebrate the Land, the harvest, God has brought you to.

*

Here is the lesson:

Each moment—the past, the present—offers its unique relationship with God.

We do not let go of these relationships.

We gather them together.

We do not stand reinvented before God.

We stand enriched by the past with God.

 

iii
In the Torah’s calendar, Sukkot comes at the close of the holidays (Passover begins the holidays).

A year’s holidays are ending.

At the end of all this time, we are ready for Sukkot’s lesson.

 

 

Chag sameach,

- Abe


Please continue to pray for Ahuvah Rachel bat Orah, and for Rachel Tovah bat Yehudit Esther
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