Shabbat Forshpeis
A Taste of Torah in Honor of Shabbat
UNIVERSALISM AND NATIONALISM AS REFLECTED
IN THE HOLIDAY EXPERIENCE
PARSHAT PINHAS
JULY 18-19, 2003 / 19 TAMMUZ 5763
This week's portion lists the festivals
and the sacrifices offered to commemorate these days. (Numbers, Chapters 28, 29) While other portions mention only the three major pilgrimage holidays, Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot, (Exodus 23:14-16; 34:18-22; Deuteronomy 16) here (as in Leviticus 23:4-44), is included Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The different listings speak to different approaches to the holiday experience which also shed light on different goals of the Jewish experience.
When only the three holidays, Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot are listed, they reflect the cornerstone of what makes up our nationhood. On Passover we became a people as we left Egypt Am Yisrael was born. On Shavuot we received the law Torat Yisrael.And on Sukkot, the festival which marks our marching through the desert toIsrael, we commemorate the gift of the land of Israel Eretz Yisrael. Indeed, the four species taken on Sukkot are viewed by many as especially connected to the land. From this perspective, the holidays send a very nationalistic message. This message became the foundation of the Religious Zionist movement the people of Israel, Am Yisrael, according to the Torah of Israel, Torat Yisrael, in the land or Israel, Eretz Yisrael.
But in this weeks portion, the list is expanded to include Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. One could argue that the actual order presented Passover, Shavuot, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur Sukkotpoint to another aspect of Judaism, that of the universal vision of our religion.
Through the Exodus from Egyptwe physically came into being; we emerged as a people. But, a nation without a purpose, just as a body without a soul, has no meaning. Hence Shavuot, the day we received the Torah which commemorates the infusion of spirituality into the physicality of Am Yisrael.
While Passover and Shavuot mark the full development of the Jewish people, the trend now veers into another direction by presenting Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Rosh Hashanah marks the anniversary of God creating all of humankind. This theme reaches its crescendo on Yom Kippur with the reading of Yonah (Jonah), the Jewish prophet who was told by God to take the message of repentance to Ninveh, a heathen city. And Sukkot is actually the most universal of festivals because during the week of Sukkot we offer seventy sacrifices symbolic of all of the nations of the world.
Passover and Shavuot speak to the development of the Jewish people. The remaining holidays aim to fulfill our task of redeeming the Jewish people through which the entire world will be redeemed. It is no accident that these latter holidays fall seven months after Passover. Seven can be vocalized savea, to be satiated. When becoming a light to the nations of the world, our mission is fully realized.
There has been long debate whether Judaism is fundamentally nationalistic or universalistic. The two different listings of the order of the holidays, as found in the Torah, indicate that we are really both.
Some Jews express their Judaism by separating themselves from the larger world. Others feel that their mission to perfect the world is so predominant that they forget their roots. The two listings of the holidays indicate that both approaches are flawed. Real creativity does not come from absolutes, but rather from the tension between opposite ideas.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Avi Weiss
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