Observing sacred milestones

Rabbi Mark Wm. Gross

generation ago, Carly Simon’s song, “Anticipation,” was used in a commercial promoting a major brand of ketchup (or catsup — your choice), with the implied message that the condiment was so rich and thick that “it is keepin’ me waitin’” to come out of the bottle. This year, no one had to wait for the Jewish holidays — the spring festival of Passover kicked off while it was still March and Purim fell back into February.

Purely in administrative terms, that phenomenon is a simple consequence of the disparity between the lunar months of the Jewish calendar and the length of the solar year. But in psychological terms, it feels as if, after almost a year of pandemic induced social distancing, cabin fever has promoted a kind of “progressive Judaism” inclining us to “lead off” on our yom-tovim.

However, the spiritual reality is that Judaism has always been about progression, process and anticipation. That has been the case ever since the birth of our fabulously ancient people through the Exodus from Egypt. We sacrificed a sheep at sundown on the night of the full moon of Nissan to put its blood on the lintel and doorposts of our houses — but, tellingly, we had been instructed to set the animal aside and guard it closely for five days beforehand. Counting down and looking forward has been part of Jewish life ever since.

That is reflected in our calendar and in its associated synagogue ritual. Shabbat Sh’qalim (which we at JCMI celebrate annually as Federation Sabbath) marks the start of an almost seven-week run-up to Passover. The Feast of Unleavened Bread, in turn, inaugurates the ceremonial 50-day spring s’firah (“countdown”) culminating in Shavuot, the Feast of the Giving of the Torah, when we made the enduring Covenant for which we had left Egypt in the first place.

Conditioned by that kind of sequential thinking, we mark the bleak three week summer s’firah between the 17th of Tammuz and the 9th of Av, as a somber alignment with long-ago tragedies for our people. But shortly afterwards, we also mark the month-long S’lichot penitential season during Elul, as a purificatory prologue to Rosh haShanah, representing the promise of healing and renewal for the individual person.

That kind of counterpoint emphasizes an important spiritual lesson: no one Jewish holiday, however popular or esoteric it may be, exists in a vacuum. All are sacred milestones in the year, pointing us forward along an archipelago of equally sacred moments as part of a larger and higher purpose of which they, and we, are all a part.

So, it matters less when the holiday is observed, than it does that it is observed … by all of us … in sacred unity … with sacred purpose … and in sacred and joyous anticipation of whatever is coming next. Go ahead and anticipate, because whatever it is, it’s going to be worth waiting for.

Rabbi Mark Wm. Gross serves at Jewish Congregation of Marco Island.