2 minute read
FOUR IN ONE
by Seed UK
By Rabbi Avraham Hassan Four Chagim in one month: Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot and Shemini Atzeret together with Simchat Torah.
FFor the chef in the home, this means planning, shopping and cooking for a very large number of meals. For those who go to shul, it means a very large number of hours spent with a siddur in hand.
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In fact, these four festivals take place over the course of just over three weeks - 23 days to be precise. Even more crammed than we thought! And three of the four Yamim Tovim are two-day experiences.
Hey G-d, give us a chance! Could You not have given us a bit of breathing space?
But He didn’t. Methinks there must be a reason for that! First comes a day of judgement. We are judged for the whole of the past year, and then, based on that, judged on what is going to come our way next year. This is followed by a day of forgiveness (if we regret the past misdemeanours). Would it not have made more sense to first forgive then judge? Would that not make it easier for us? Again, there must be a reason. Here is a conceptual sequence. On Rosh Hashanah we are forced (if we care enough) to stocktake. Once a year, before there is too much accumulation, we put our house in order. Leaving it longer might result in lots of issues not being addressed. Once we take stock and do OUR bit, we will find it easier to regret misdemeanours, make up with those we have hurt, and receive forgiveness from them and G-d.
Now comes Sukkot. Leave your palatial houses… (have you ever visited the ancient castles of royalty and seen how poor their living conditions were compared to ours?) and spend a week in a hut. Try to impress on yourselves the transience of this life and continue to have that focus on getting your priorities in better order for the coming year.
In addition, the spiritual cleansing we achieve on Yom Kippur should produce a good happy glow inside us, which is why Sukkot is called ‘zeman simchatenu’, the season of rejoicing. We channel this happiness into the realisation that it’s our beautiful Torah which gives us the edge in life on Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah.
Four in one means a short course in how to find true spiritual happiness. A chance to readjust our perspectives once a year. And it’s clear why all four really belong together as one unit.
Make the most of it!
Rabbi Avraham Hassan has been working at Seed for 35 years and was the original leader of ‘Northern Seed’, running One2One programmes and lecturing on our seminars. He has a long list of illustrious students who are educators themselves, including Rabbi Akiva Tatz. As well as being Seed Manchester’s Senior Rabbinic Advisor, he gives a range of weekly classes on Jewish philosophy and mysticism, Jewish law and more.
