| May 2009
Sinai Update – Week of May 24-30, 2009 Shavu’ot begins Thursday evening Reflections on the Jewish Calendar – Rabbi Andy Vogel Tomorrow night, we observe the holiday of Shavu’ot, the “Festival of Weeks,” traditionally called “the time of the Giving of our Torah.” According to Jewish tradition, it was on this day, the 6th of Sivan, more than 3,000 years ago, that the entire Jewish people stood at the foot of Mount Sinai to receive the Torah, and enter into our covenant – our holy relationship – with God. On that awesome day, over one hundred generations ago, we accepted the Torah and its teachings from God.
In addition to the Reform tradition of a Confirmation service for teenagers on Shavu’ot, there are few other rituals for this important holiday, which stands at the center of events in Jewish history as the day when we collectively entered into covenant with God: Jews gather to study all night long, special readings, like the Book of Ruth, are added to the service, and we eat dairy foods (i.e., milk nourishes a child like Torah nourishes us). There is one more important ritual on Shavu’ot: Standing as a congregation for the Torah reading of the Ten Commandments. When the congregation stands when the first words of the Ten Commandments are read, we are re-enacting the moment when our people stood together at Mount Sinai. This special choreography is no mere detail; standing in the congregation symbolizes that the Torah was not just given to us once, long ago in Jewish history. No, it reminds us that Torah is continually revealed to us as a people, that God’s revelation to us is on-going. Each year, each day, whenever people are engaged in uncovering new truths in studying Torah, is a day when new Torah comes into the world. Our task as Jews is to always be standing at Sinai, always renewing our relationship with God and holiness in our lives and the life of our community.
I hope you will join us on the 1st day of Shavu’ot, which is Thursday evening, or the holiday’s 2nd day, Friday evening or Saturday morning, for one of the special Shavu’ot celebrations or study sessions for this lovely holiday. Chag same’ach!
Sinai Update – Week of May 10-16, 2009
This week’s Torah portion speaks of economic and social reform. It envisions a society in which checks and balances regulate the relative wealth of its members. The Torah portion sets out methods for controlling the extent of the debt of society’s poorest members, dealing with foreclosures, ____and an unambiguous warning against wronging one another in the financial realm (see Lev. 25:14). While the specifics of the economic reform the Torah portion prescribes may have been difficult for any society of enact at any time in history, it nonetheless explicitly dreams of an economic system that works continually to eradicate poverty and raise up the standard of living for all.
We should not take this vision lightly, nor can we, given the financial crisis our own world is in now. Rashi (11th century) notes that this week’s passage, which deals explicitly with the Torah’s vision of a just economic system, was spoken directly to Moses “on Mount Sinai” (Lev. 25:1), and comments that a just and fair economic system are just as important as anything else said at Mount Sinai, when our Covenant with God was established. As Jews, we take the responsibility to society’s poorest and most indebted individuals seriously, and we, too, cry out for the need for reform today.
Sinai Update – Week of May 3-9, 2009
A partnership exists between God and humans in creating holy experiences. As we read a list of the Jewish calendar and holidays in this week’s Torah portion, we hear this divine-human collaboration emphasized: “These are the fixed times of Adonai, which you shall proclaim as holy occasions” (Leviticus 23:2). A key phrase, repeated throughout the Torah portion, is “proclamations of holiness,” and just two verses later, in Leviticus 23:4, the idea is repeated: “These are the fixed times of Adonai, proclamations of holiness, which you are to proclaim at their appointed times.” The message: Our proclamation of the holy day is, in part, what makes it holy.
This gives humans tremendous power! It’s not only God who decides when Passover, Shavu’ot or Sukkot fall. We humans have the ability – and the responsibility – to proclaim them! When we announce each holiday, we become God’s partner in establishing the holiness of the day. (If we fail to do so, if we forget or ignore the holiday, it ceases to be holy.) As a practical matter, we are reminded of this mind-boggling theological concept because the above verse from Leviticus is recited at a Kiddush lunch on festival holidays, telling us of our power to make the holy real by elevating our consciousness of the potential for holiness in our lives. |
