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Appointments In Time
These are the appointed times (moadim) of G-d, callings of holiness, which you shall call in their appointed times (Lev.23:4)
The Torah refers to the festivals of the Jewish calendar as moadim, "appointed times," and as mikra’ei kodesh, "callings of holiness." "These are G-d’s appointed times," reads the introductory verse to the Torah’s listing of the festivals in the book of Leviticus, "callings of holiness, which you shall call in their appointed times."
A festival is an appointment with the past, an encounter with an event and phenomenon in history. It is an opportunity to "call" forth the particular "holiness" of the day, to tap the spiritual resources it holds. Enabling you to see the depth of the Word of G-d.
Each festivals marks a point in our journey through time at which our Heavenly Father, accompanying us in our steps as His people, supplied us with the resources that nurture our spiritual lives. Bring us up strong in the knowledge of His Word.
1) On Passover , we were granted the gift of freedom. As believers born of the blood of the Pascal Lamb, we are born on that day of believing. Now we are not now partakers with the first born of Egypt, but now marked with the blood and Passover. Covered with the blood of the Lamb. Which was eaten at night as this is an internal experience hidden from the world. Just as darkness fell as He hung on the cross.
2) On Shavuot , G-d revealed Himself to us at Mount Sinai and gave us His Torah, the embodiment of His wisdom (filling us with His Holy Spirit) and making us with the Jews partakers of His will and our charter as His "kingdom of priests and a holy people". Now filled with the HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) we are brought through the water of the red sea. Egypt (world) has no hold on us now we are set free of the slavery of bondage. Filled now with His wisdom.
3) Rosh HaShanah is the day on which G-d first became King. As we make Him the Lord of our lives. He becomes the desire and center in our hearts and lives.
4) On Yom Kippur , G-d forgave our first and most terrible betrayal as His people, the sin of the Golden Calf, granting us the gift of teshuvah-the capacity to rectify and transform a deficient past. Set free from the cost of sin we can ask continuously for the forgiveness daily.
5) Sukkot commemorates the time that we were sheltered and unified by the divine "clouds of glory" in our journey through the desert toward our Promised Land. No taken into the desert of SIN we learn to walk by faith and not by sight. It is at this time that many believers finds themselves in a wilderness journey that cannot be shared with others. There isolated the believer is forced to depend only on HaShem for all there provisions.
6) The miracle of Chanukah marks the salvation of the Jewish soul-the triumph of light and purity over darkness and adulteration. The miracle of the light that is stays lite despite the odds only by a miracle can the believers light can shine.
7) The miracle of Purim , the salvation of the Jewish body and the specialty and choosiness of our physical selves. Now the believer learns to bring the physical under the control of the spiritual. The Carnal is has no authority in our lives now.
And, so with all the festivals and special dates and periods on our calendar.
But, these were not one-time gifts from above. Freedom, wisdom, commitment, joy, illumination, peace-these are constant needs of the soul, the spiritual nutrients that sustain her in her journey through life. G-d sunk "wells" at various points in the terrain of time to serve as perpetual sources of these blessings. As we travel through the year-the year being a microcosm of the entire universe of time-we encounter the festivals, each marking the location of a "well" of nurture for our souls.
G-d also provided us with a map of these wells--a calendar denoting their locations in our journey through time. The map also comes with instructions on how to "reopen" each well and access its waters:
1) Sounding the shofar on Rosh HaShanah will regenerate the divine coronation that transpired on the first Rosh HaShanah when Adam crowned G-d as king of the universe.
2) Eating matzah evokes the freedom of Passover.
3) Kindling the Chanukah lights recreates the miracle of Chanukah.
And so it is with every such "appointment" on our calendar: each comes supplied with its own mitzvot and observances-the tools that open the well and unleash the flow of its waters. As we learn more of Yesahu!
Jewish Perspectives
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