What IS your favorite holiday? Probably, you like different holidays for different things. But doesn't one stand out?
I have two calendars of holidays....the good ol' American days and the Jewish calendar. On the American front, both July 4th and Thanksgiving rank high - they tend to be relaxed family days with good eats (at least, when I have the opportunity to be with family), and - in my family, anyway - little reason for hassle. Every family has its dysfunctionality, but at least nobody in mine takes issue with being seated next to anyone else, and so on. In fact, these days demonstrate a remarkable lack of family conflict.
My favorite holiday on the Jewish calendar is Shavuot. I think that may even have been the case when I was in 8th grade, and our drama teacher posed the same question (though this makes no sense to me, historically, so perhaps my memory deceives).
Shavuot captures me both because of the experience of the day and the meaning of the day.
Let's start with the experience:
Jewish tradition encourages greenery (flowers), dairy meals (cheesecake), and staying up all night to learn Torah. Personally, I'm in favor of each of these things (though I don't pull all-nighters as often as I used to), which makes all of them together in one day a wonderful trifecta (I may be exaggerating with that term, but you get the point). To find enticing illustration of the dairy, see here: http://ayalayoung.blogspot.com/2012/05/isnt-it-ironic.html, though my favorite cheesecake is a 1981 recipe from Seventeen Magazine, adapted by my cousin and me (if I had digital pictures, I'd post them...yet another example of the absence of digital pics getting in my way...I'll have to make it and photograph it!). Ayala wouldn't like it, though, because it involves a good number of chocolate chips.
Me, I like the flowers too:
As for meaning, well, historically, the holiday of Shavuot commemorates the season of the beginnings of the harvest. It's the time when the "first fruits" were offered as sacrifices to God in thanksgiving, giving the initial reapings to the One who allows the fields and trees to produce. It's the time when the counting of the Omer is complete - with a bracha every night if you manage it - and the barley sacrifice gives way for wheat.
Not mentioned in the Torah, Shavuot is the anniversary of the giving of the Torah. That would be the "anniversary" of the marriage between God and the Jewish People - with His unbending commitment to the Children of Israel (despite the suffering of Jewish history that follows).
It's also the time when Megillat Ruth is read, and it has long been my sense that this book holds the key to the "secret" of Shavuot (I even wrote about it in 2008 - see page 41).
The day that commemorates the giving of the Law has (essentially) no laws associated with it uniquely (aside from that sacrifice of wheat). In contrast, Pesach (Passover) is the holiday that celebrates freedom - and it is replete with laws that have only grown in number by leaps and bounds over the centuries. If the details of Pesach teach the privilege that accompanies serious assumption of responsibility, then the absence of detail in receiving the Torah highlights the opportunities found in the white space between the letters of the law. What are we to do in areas that inherently, necessarily remain unlegislated? After all (believe it or not), even the most casuistic legal systems involve their practitioners beyond the letter of the law.
Thus, Megillat Ruth teaches the primacy of "chesed" - lovingkindness, or even just plain old regular kindness. Kindness takes us out of ourselves - and by definition, chesed cannot be mandated. - Yes, acts of chesed are part and parcel of daily living: visiting the sick, helping the orphan, and so on. But the strong, selfless actions of Ruth when she throws her lot in with Naomi and her people are explicitly not required of her when Naomi instructs her to return to her own family (so too Boaz's bounty, when there was another to redeem the family). The mystery of Ruth's commitment is intriguing; more importantly (since it's in the story), by going beyond what is required, she functions as a model for us who read her tale.
The notion that the holiday of the Law is commemorated with a story of one who utterly circumvents the obligatory to do more suggests the manner by which we may embody our fulfillment of that Law. Lest you think, however, that the implication is simple stringency with regard to the details of the laws - let me remind you that we already have Pesach for that.
Rather, Shavuot teaches that the Law imbues us with the intuitive sense - albeit an intuition acquired through study - of how to live beyond the letter of the law - in the white space.
| Kazimir Malevich: Suprematist Compisition: White on White, 1918 (from here: http://paulcorio.blogspot.com/2008/03/paintings-i-like-pt-16.html)One of my favorite abstract paintings, seen at the MOMA in December 1988, in preparation for Anna Chave's Modern Art & Abstraction (better known as "Spots and Dots") |
I like Purim best--that story keeps me on the edge of my seat every time. And I do adore Christmas, even though, or perhaps more so because I don;t actually celebrate it.
ReplyDeleteI just posted a bit about Shavuot too, though your explanations are way better than mine. I think I shall link to your post, if that's ok with you.