Imagine if ‘Jewish Time’ could talk. Now imagine if Jewish Time had a microphone and a five-minute press conference to broadcast to the world. What would it say for itself? What would be the best questions to ask of it? The following dialogue is between one skeptical Jewish reporter and Jewish Time. Here is the opening question:
Reporter: “Obviously there is deep wisdom in the grand architecture of our calendar. What aspects of the Hebrew calendar should we pay attention to that will enrich our lives the most? In other words, how can we get the most bang for our buck?”
Jewish Time: Hold on, back up a minute.
Before the interview officially begins, I first want to share some of the Hebrew calendar’s backstory. How did it come to be the one we use today? First, the Hebrew calendar is a hybrid of multiple calendars which includes the solar calendar, the lunar calendar, the Gregorian calendar, and even the Julian calendar. That should clue us into a system of counting days that continues to evolve and absorb from multiple influences. Case in point: the names of Hebrew months are not Hebrew! Their names originate from both Babylonian and ancient Akkadian terminology.
Every civilization’s ability to thrive depended on their ability to produce food. Not surprisingly, the defining structural aspect of the Hebrew calendar in biblical times was rooted in all those societies’ central focus on the agrarian system. Naturally, our first wave of holidays celebrated our partnership with the Earth and the forces that sustained our ancestors. Our most ancient festivals, Passover, Sukkot and Shavuot, are each seasonal and each celebrated different crucial moments in the harvest schedule. But the calendar did not end with them. Each major period of history since has layered in more holidays and sensibilities. Hanukkah, Purim, and Tisha B’Av were built up and incorporated into Jewish law and practice by the rabbinic sages. Tu Bishvat and Simchat Torah came about in the Medieval period. Finally, a slew of national holidays emerged since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. That is the backstory. Some might say the calendar is a work in progress and is still incomplete.
Reporter: Thank you for that introduction. Now I understand the nature of how the holiday system was built. The parts make sense, but I’m struggling to understand the whole. What is the calendar communicating to its followers? Is there a unifying message to listen for in the project of Jewish time that spans several thousand years? Is there compelling logic binding these holidays together?
Jewish Time: Yes. There is an overarching logic to how it all comes together and I’m happy to share it. It is actually fairly straightforward. The Jewish holiday cycle is a simulation of two complementary phenomena that find expression both in the natural world and in the human experience: “creation and disintegration.” Or “collapse and rebirth.” Or “beginnings and endings.” I
Reporter: That is a little dark, but I think I understand the duality you are describing. Can you give me some concrete examples?
Jewish Time: Of course. In the natural world, the processes of creation and disintegration are happening non-stop. We see this in the forest. Some trees are growing while others trees fall and decay as they make space for the new trees. In the human realm too, you are constantly enduring states of slow and fast collapse and rebirth. This is mirrored in the stages of your life all the way down to the cellular level. You experience it at the societal level, but also deep within your families, your bodies and psyches. They are expressed, for example, as healthy and sick, marriage and divorce, financial gain and loss, winning and losing. Your ancestors recognized the spiritual significance of humans’ unique ability to consciously witness and be in deliberate relationship with these two aspects of life energy. The Hebrew calendar simulates this awareness in many ways. One major way “creation” and “collapse” energies manifest in Jewish tradition are in the precise placement of the holidays.
Reporter: So there IS something going on with how the holidays are placed!
Jewish Time: Yes! Almost all of the Jewish holidays fall within two calendar cycles: the spring cycle and the fall cycle. For the sake of brevity, let’s call them the two “clusters.”
Let’s first look at their “big” moments. Passover is the undeniable cornerstone of the springtime cluster. One of Passover’s nicknames, Chag HaAviv, literally means the “spring festival.” Meanwhile, the cornerstone holidays of the fall cluster are more of a dealer’s choice between Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot. But the main thing to understand conceptually, is that the two clusters are moving in seemingly opposite directions and they are feeding off each other.
Reporter: Huh? What do you mean by that? And how do those two holiday clusters connect to those opposing energies you mentioned – like creation and disintegration?
Jewish Time: Great question. I’m getting there. The best way to understand how the two clusters function is by examining how each of them start. Neither cluster begins with the peak holidays I mentioned. The spring cluster kicks off on Tu Bishvat and the fall cluster starts on Tisha B’Av. Let’s take a closer look at those two holidays specifically in the context of the calendar.
Tisha B’Av is the epitome of collapse in the Jewish calendar. On the physical level, the holiday commemorates the loss of Jewish home and nation in the destruction of the First and Second Temples. On the spiritual level, the holiday represents the loss of divine presence and protection. Amidst the hottest days of summer, this major fast day invokes a collective memory of the cataclysmic moment of Jewish history when everything that was, was no more. Its primary source in our text, the book of Eicha (Lamentations), describes the carnage the Jews faced in Babylonia, and later Rome’s utter demolition of Jerusalem. There is nothing left. This is how the fall cycle begins, with an ending. Jerusalem, as our foundation, is no more.
Naturally, the mood shifts throughout the fall holiday season, but the experience of decay and disintegration from Tisha B’Av lingers. The catastrophic national loss transforms to holidays emphasizing individual consciousness, particularly our shortcomings. Suddenly, we hear the shofar and we are newly conscious of our capacity for moral decay as human beings; we understand that all of us are guilty. By design, the harshness of Tisha B’Av is still with us, but now it is personal. The message at the heart of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is waking up to our own human process of deterioration. As Tisha B’Av teaches us, it is wise to be reminded and attuned to the inevitability of demise. “How should we use the time we still have?” is the urgent whisper beneath the fall cycle.
Reporter: That makes sense. The fall cluster is about collapse. How does the spring cluster serve as a complement?
Jewish Time: Ahh. You’re starting to get it. In absolutely stark contrast to Tisha B’Av, the “spring cluster” of Jewish holidays begins on Tu Bishvat. Six months and six days later, in the coldest part of February, this tree-focused holiday has one specific image to convey: rebirth. Empty trees reborn every year symbolizing how the Earth, seemingly on the verge of collapse, somehow replenishes itself. In a very literal way, the spring holidays kicks off with the idea that life finds a way to regenerate. But the metaphor carries over to the human psyche as well. For as cold and frozen we may have been, the one thing about life is its cyclical nature. All life and all matter eventually shrivel up, decompose, and then disintegrate. Then, like clockwork, new life appears and some of the old life returns to its vitality. This is how the spring cycle begins, with a beginning.
Like Tisha B’Av, Tu Bishvat, a.k.a. the spring cluster kickoff holiday, feeds the energy of the rest of the season. The physical and spiritual seeds planted and emerging from Tu Bishvat sprout and carry the rest of the springtime festivals. From the nation-saving miracle of Purim to the re-telling of our origin story on Passover, the spring holidays are infused with purpose, growth, and stories of our strength, even when we doubted we had any left. Using the tree metaphor, Tu Bishvat kicks off a holiday season of generative life-giving forces blooming and feeding our bodies and spirits.
And if you think these two clusters have a wild beginning, wait until you hear about how they end–each with their own intense and very different festivals celebrating the Torah.
Reporter: That is beautiful and poetic and even makes logical sense. But I still don’t fully understand the point of it all. So there are two holiday clusters structured in opposition to one another. If I understand it, you are basically saying “Things get better and things get worse and that’s life.” It has to be more than that, right? What wisdom are we supposed to internalize from these two holiday clusters that is worth devoting our efforts, our focus, and our hard-earned vacation time to?
Jewish Time: I appreciate your patience and persistence. First, understand that it is actually ‘not worth it’ for a lot of people, and that’s okay. Thousands of people walk away from this calendar system every year. It is a big ask to live in multiple calendrical realities, or in two civilizations.
Reporter: Help me piece it together. Why should I care about a system dedicated to reminding me at every turn about the forces of creation and disintegration animating life around me at all times?
Jewish Time: I think you might have answered the question yourself, but I’ll spell it out for you. My goal as Jewish Time is to help you wake up to these seemingly oppositional forces and consciously strive to live in balance. Also, I want you to understand that the spring cycle is not in opposition to the fall cycle. They need each other. They rely on each other. You can avoid a lot of suffering in your life if you spend less time trying to control those forces and more time tuned into what they are trying to communicate to you.
The Earth and all life cannot exist without the precious balance of growth and decay. You know this in your bones. You are reminded of this duality with every in-breath that gives you life for a few more seconds, and also every out-breath, letting go of some of what has accumulated. This is the language of our primary operating system. Don’t you want to be as alive and aware as possible to the immutable features of your existence?
The Jewish holidays serve many purposes: They tell stories. They pass wisdom on from generation to generation. They give you reasons to gather and much more. The order and timing of the holidays and the two clusters are practices and tools for attunement. You have an opportunity to live consciously in the rhythm and balance among those creative and timeless impulses. Ultimately, Jewish time is inviting you to witness and uncover your place within the confines of the time you have.
Thanks for all your questions. That’s all the time we have for today.