The Final Countdown
As many of you have noticed, the Jewish calendar is now in a period of very mixed emotions called the Omer. In the 50 days between Pesach and Shavuot we are commanded to count the days, making a total of 7 weeks leading up to the final day, which we make a holiday. However, in modern day Orthodoxy this time period is charged with very conflicting and diametric emotions. This time period features mourning the loss of Rabbi Akivah’s students, the not so known Monday-Thursday-Monday fast (Beha”b), Israeli Independence Day, and of course the crazy and wild Lag Ba’omer. As Jews, what are we supposed to focus on during these days? Are we sad, by not getting haircuts, not getting married, not listening to live music? Are we supposed to march in the streets with our flags, proud of the first flowering of our redemption? Are we supposed to commemorate bringing flour sacrifices to the Temple?
I suggest that to find some sort of order amidst all of this chaos we should focus on the essence of the time period itself. The Jewish calendar is a lunar calendar, yet there is one thing that keeps it with solar calendar restraints (forcing the need for leap years). That is, that the holiday of Pesach must be celebrated in the springtime. (Keep that in mind) Pesach is a holiday of redemption. The Jews were enslaved and G-d freed them, and we commemorate this national redemption and relive it on our own terms each and every year. Exactly 50 days after that Seder night we relive a different redemption – we remember the Jewish people receiving the Torah from Mount Sinai. Conversely, this is our spiritual redemption.
With this lens, the time period begins to make more sense. These 50 days we need to focus on connecting our nationhood to our spirituality. Our connection to G-d relies on our connection to our fellow Jews and to Israel, and certainly vice versa. The seemingly “random” events in the Omer are in fact not random at all. We begin with Pesach, the ultimate national redemption. Then we start to mourn, for we must remember that in order to reach our next redemption, we must start loving our neighbors, as Rabbi Akivah preached: “Love your neighbor like thyself”, but his students were killed for not listening. Israeli Independence Day gives us hope, as Israel is the true first flowering of our redemption. We are both spiritually connected and nationally connected to Israel. (If you don’t know why, go on an NCSY summer program or something). Next comes Lag Ba’omer, which is ultimately just a time for Jews to chill with Jews. Having no set rules or customs except for some bonfires and maybe some bow and arrows, this holiday allows us to once again feel Jewish, with Jewish friends who want the same thing as us. Finally, after 50 days of infusing our nationhood and spirituality, we can then spend an entire night devoted to G-d and His Torah, the ultimate spiritual redemption. The springtime transitions into summer, as our rebirth is complete and we move forward to a bright new future, filled with defined values. I wish for all of you and for the entire Jewish nation the ability to infuse their spirituality with their sense of Jewish pride.
Happy/Sad/Crazy weekend everybody!
Jonathan Levine