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xiphiasSo, the month of Tishrei, as everyone who is an observant-ish Jew, or hangs out with an observant-ish Jew knows, is chock-a-block with holidays, and the last one in the cycle starts tonight.
Next month, Cheshvan, has none; we don't have another holiday until Hannukah, in Kislev. And that one's a minor one. We more or less blow the bank on this month.
And I'm finally starting to understand why. Really, the whole month of Tishrei -- maybe the whole month of Elul before Tishrei, and THEN Tishrei, or maybe even going as far back as Tisha B'av the month BEFORE -- forms one single uber-holiday, with one, sort of, emotional/narrative arc.
I'm going to just start with Rosh Hashannah at the beginning of Tishrei, but, like I just said one sentence ago, some people start it a month, a month and half, earlier.
At Rosh Hashannah, we start with a "beginning." We call this the New Year, and it's our odometer date for incrementing the Jewish calendar. However, the first month of the year is Nissan -- Tishrei is the seventh month. Weird? Well, maybe, but no more weird than having a "school year" start in September, or a "fiscal year" start in October, or whenever.
But Rosh Hashannah is the "Head of the Year", literally, and is considered to be the "birthday of the world." It's a time of starting over, of renewal.
But you don't just jump into starting over immediately. No, first, you've got to finish off all your old unfinished business from before.
Ideally, you've been working on that process for the whole previous month of Elul. But hardly anyone ever manages to do that. So you have to jam that whole process of trying to deal with loose ends in your interpersonal relationships into the next ten days.
And THAT'S when you have a chance to REALLY start over.
On Yom Kippur, you try to purify yourself, scrub out the blemishes in your soul, try to repair whatever needs repairing. It's grueling, and deeply satisfying when it works. Yom Kippur is a day of great emotion, including great joy.
So, after you've gotten that major yearly cleaning of your soul done, then what?
When I was a kid, American Jews just didn't celebrate Sukkot.
Now, all the Jews who walk past my house, and maybe nearly half the Christians, recognize the thing in my front yard. I didn't make a sign this year to invite passerby in -- I should have; I really liked that last year, so I will again next year -- but people seemed to know what it was. That's WONDERFUL.
My rabbi growing up said that Yom Kippur is like your Brussels sprouts. They're good for you. They make you healthy, and grow up strong. But they can be pretty nasty. (Okay, fine. I LIKE Brussels sprouts, but then, I like Yom Kippur, too.) Going through Yom Kippur without doing Sukkot is like choking down your Brussels sprouts, but then skipping dessert.
Dang it, you EARNED your dessert!
And that's what Sukkot is.
There are commandments that go along with each holiday. And on Sukkot, we are commanded to rejoice. And so we dance around with palm branches (does this remind any Catholics of anything you do? 'Course, you do it in the spring instead of the fall), and citrons, and willow branches, and myrtle branches. And we make little booths and eat outside, and, if we're tough enough or we live somewhere where the weather is nice enough, we sleep in them. And we invite friends over, and we just generally hang out and have a good time.
Sukkot is one of the only holidays in the Jewish year without specific foods associated with it. Why? Because you're supposed to have whatever it is YOU like to eat. Hence, "Pizza in the Hut" which happens in pretty much every American Jewish community I know, since everyone likes pizza, and the joke works everywhere ("Pizza Hut" is an American chain of pizza restaurants).
The rabbis really liked Sukkot. Actually, they really LOVED Sukkot. It was a highlight of the year. It was a pilgrimage holiday, in which the whole country came to Jerusalem -- so it was not only a party, it was a BIG party. The Talmud talks about how some of the rabbis did things like fire-juggling or juggling five raw eggs as part of the party.
Sukkot lasts seven days. The eighth day is called "Eighth Day", or "Shemini Atzeret". And it's a holiday in its own right. But, the way I see it, the real point of it is to stretch out Sukkot juuuuust one more day. "C'mon, G-d -- can I stay at the party JUST ten more minutes? Really!"
And, well. . . hey, look! Right at this time of year, we ALSO have just finished reading the last part of the Five Books of Moses in our yearly reading cycle! Look, we're already HAVING the party . . . can we stick around just a LITTLE longer, maybe start right back at the beginning of the Five Books, and . . .c'mon. Just ONE more dance. 'Kay, G-d/the rabbis/our culture/our community? C'mon. . . it's FOR a good cause!
YEAH! They fell for it! We get another party!
And that's what Simchat Torah is.
See, it's all part of the same cycle -- a cycle of trying to go through the exhausting and grueling work of the renewal of your soul, followed by the reward of the equally exhausting but not at ALL grueling play of hanging out with friends, dancing a lot, eating good food, and just generally having a good time.
Next month, Cheshvan, has none; we don't have another holiday until Hannukah, in Kislev. And that one's a minor one. We more or less blow the bank on this month.
And I'm finally starting to understand why. Really, the whole month of Tishrei -- maybe the whole month of Elul before Tishrei, and THEN Tishrei, or maybe even going as far back as Tisha B'av the month BEFORE -- forms one single uber-holiday, with one, sort of, emotional/narrative arc.
I'm going to just start with Rosh Hashannah at the beginning of Tishrei, but, like I just said one sentence ago, some people start it a month, a month and half, earlier.
At Rosh Hashannah, we start with a "beginning." We call this the New Year, and it's our odometer date for incrementing the Jewish calendar. However, the first month of the year is Nissan -- Tishrei is the seventh month. Weird? Well, maybe, but no more weird than having a "school year" start in September, or a "fiscal year" start in October, or whenever.
But Rosh Hashannah is the "Head of the Year", literally, and is considered to be the "birthday of the world." It's a time of starting over, of renewal.
But you don't just jump into starting over immediately. No, first, you've got to finish off all your old unfinished business from before.
Ideally, you've been working on that process for the whole previous month of Elul. But hardly anyone ever manages to do that. So you have to jam that whole process of trying to deal with loose ends in your interpersonal relationships into the next ten days.
And THAT'S when you have a chance to REALLY start over.
On Yom Kippur, you try to purify yourself, scrub out the blemishes in your soul, try to repair whatever needs repairing. It's grueling, and deeply satisfying when it works. Yom Kippur is a day of great emotion, including great joy.
So, after you've gotten that major yearly cleaning of your soul done, then what?
When I was a kid, American Jews just didn't celebrate Sukkot.
Now, all the Jews who walk past my house, and maybe nearly half the Christians, recognize the thing in my front yard. I didn't make a sign this year to invite passerby in -- I should have; I really liked that last year, so I will again next year -- but people seemed to know what it was. That's WONDERFUL.
My rabbi growing up said that Yom Kippur is like your Brussels sprouts. They're good for you. They make you healthy, and grow up strong. But they can be pretty nasty. (Okay, fine. I LIKE Brussels sprouts, but then, I like Yom Kippur, too.) Going through Yom Kippur without doing Sukkot is like choking down your Brussels sprouts, but then skipping dessert.
Dang it, you EARNED your dessert!
And that's what Sukkot is.
There are commandments that go along with each holiday. And on Sukkot, we are commanded to rejoice. And so we dance around with palm branches (does this remind any Catholics of anything you do? 'Course, you do it in the spring instead of the fall), and citrons, and willow branches, and myrtle branches. And we make little booths and eat outside, and, if we're tough enough or we live somewhere where the weather is nice enough, we sleep in them. And we invite friends over, and we just generally hang out and have a good time.
Sukkot is one of the only holidays in the Jewish year without specific foods associated with it. Why? Because you're supposed to have whatever it is YOU like to eat. Hence, "Pizza in the Hut" which happens in pretty much every American Jewish community I know, since everyone likes pizza, and the joke works everywhere ("Pizza Hut" is an American chain of pizza restaurants).
The rabbis really liked Sukkot. Actually, they really LOVED Sukkot. It was a highlight of the year. It was a pilgrimage holiday, in which the whole country came to Jerusalem -- so it was not only a party, it was a BIG party. The Talmud talks about how some of the rabbis did things like fire-juggling or juggling five raw eggs as part of the party.
Sukkot lasts seven days. The eighth day is called "Eighth Day", or "Shemini Atzeret". And it's a holiday in its own right. But, the way I see it, the real point of it is to stretch out Sukkot juuuuust one more day. "C'mon, G-d -- can I stay at the party JUST ten more minutes? Really!"
And, well. . . hey, look! Right at this time of year, we ALSO have just finished reading the last part of the Five Books of Moses in our yearly reading cycle! Look, we're already HAVING the party . . . can we stick around just a LITTLE longer, maybe start right back at the beginning of the Five Books, and . . .c'mon. Just ONE more dance. 'Kay, G-d/the rabbis/our culture/our community? C'mon. . . it's FOR a good cause!
YEAH! They fell for it! We get another party!
And that's what Simchat Torah is.
See, it's all part of the same cycle -- a cycle of trying to go through the exhausting and grueling work of the renewal of your soul, followed by the reward of the equally exhausting but not at ALL grueling play of hanging out with friends, dancing a lot, eating good food, and just generally having a good time.
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-21 04:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-21 05:12 pm (UTC)Or, more succinctly, I love how you talk about Judaism, I really do.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-21 06:17 pm (UTC)I first learned about Sukkot from the Christian Bible, of all places.
Date: 2008-10-21 06:23 pm (UTC)I think one of the reasons I was so fond of reading about world religions (other than my secret calling by Ishtar) was the fact that I adored the idea of there being so many parties all over the world...Diwali and Eid and Sukkot and Mothering Sunday and Songkran! I was terribly disappointed when the reforms of the Vatican Council stripped so many of our old holidays away from Catholicism. It wasn't why I left the Church, but it echoed in my mind for years.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-22 12:25 am (UTC)(no subject)
From:(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-22 12:26 am (UTC)We had 9 and an infant in our succah this year, including to visitors from Israel. We were talking about customs and she said to me "we use real fruit in ours in Israel." And I said "יש לנו הרבה סנאים והם אוכלים את הפרות" her husband was then off like a shot with his camera exploring our yard, because Squirrels are only seen in zoos in Israel.
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-27 01:09 pm (UTC)