Our first commandment as Bnei Yisrael, the Children of Israel, is to ‘mark the months’, giving birth to the concept of the Jewish calendar – in our case, the lunar cycle.
We are given this commandment just before we leave Egypt at the start of Spring (in the Northern Hemisphere at least). We understand this to refer to the start of the Hebrew month of Nissan.
From here, the Jewish Calendar unfolds, taking us through a cyclical journey, year after year, as we learn to exercise muscles of joy and of sadness, of mourning, commitment, care, forgiveness, renewal and everything else in between. Not only does our year follow a flow of these big festivals such as Pesach and Rosh Hashanah, but in between this, we mark each month, with newness and change over Rosh Chodesh, and we mark each week with renewal and reflection over Shabbat, and then still, we are given traditions to mark each day, morning, noon and night, our three prescribed daily prayer sessions. That seems like a lot!
Is it even possible to mark every moment in time of our lives as well as make it relevant to our modern-day, bustling city lifestyles in Cape Town? Well, I think there is a way to make it all work!
Our three daily prayer sessions are routed in the three mandatory daily Korbanot, Sacrifices, during the times of the Mishkan Bamidbar. This was a system in place to remind us to visit the Divine, to pause and check in with ourselves, but for most of us, popping into shul three times a day, does not fit into that 9-5 work week. Perhaps there is another way that you can recognise the time of day. For example, by pausing to notice the bird in the tree, recognising the beauty in the natural world and a sacrifice of your attention; or handing out a sandwich at the red light, recognising the beauty and importance of all people and a sacrifice of property; or perhaps a moment of deep breath and a little reflection on your day, recognising the importance of our mental and physical health, and a sacrifice of time. All of these accessible acts satisfy pretty much the same intentions as that ancient sacrificial custom that we learn about in Leviticus.
If you take a full and in-depth exploration of this Jewish Time that we are instructed to live by, you will find many, very useful, tips and intentions to guide us through the crazy fast-paced lifestyles that we are living today! Our festivals often bring up incredibly relevant themes of life and, in fact, help us to grow new muscles that we would not have otherwise been using, so that, when we do need to celebrate big, we know how! And when we do need to rest, there are systems in place to catch us; and when we do need to heal, we have mechanisms, words and lessons that teach us how to do that. We often forget that these things are built into our calendar, our guide, like a map that we can superimpose on our own personal lifestyles and journeys, however colourful and crazy they may be!
So try to lean into the Jewish calendar in one new way this month and let it guide you, and grow you as an individual, and us as a community. ●
Temple Israel www.templeisrael.co.za
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