From the Desk of
Rabbi David Lyon
April 6, 2007
Four days of eating matzah gives new meaning to the words, “Let My people go!” There are many kinds of matzah to make the week-long holiday meaningful and tasty. My wife brought home so many varieties of matzah that we stood around tasting them all. The chocolate covered matzah didn’t last long in our house, but the small sample I tasted was delicious.
At Temple, we observe the Reform calendar and keep the first and last days of Passover as holy days. Torah teaches, “Seven (read seven) days you shall eat unleavened bread,” and, “Seven days you shall observe the feast of unleavened bread.” Seven, not eight days, according to Torah. Therefore, the first and seventh days are yontif days; they’re festival holy days when we also have worship services. We add a special Torah reading and Hallel, forms of praise, to the liturgy. The last day, the seventh day, is also Yizkor, when we read memorial prayers.
So, now you’re probably wondering, “Why do some Jewish communities have eight days of Passover?” It’s not because the matzah tastes so good. It’s because the ancient manner of declaring the start of a festival holiday wasn’t very effective. Torch-bearers went out from Jerusalem to signal from atop the high places that the holiday had begun. Imagine the problems inherent in their low-tech system! And, you thought we had dead spots in cellphone tower transmission. Anyone living outside Jerusalem and beyond, like in Houston, might never see the torch. A torch could go out; a false torch-bearer could interrupt the message; and, on a cloudy night the torch could not be seen. They resolved the problem by adding a day to the holiday so that, even if one started the holiday late, it could be observed for the duration of the observance without fail. So, eight days of Passover and Sukkot, like two days of Rosh Hashanah and Shavuot, all stem from this original calendar dilemma. Now, in 2007, we have long relied not on torch-bearers, but on scientific and dependable calendars. On my desk is a perpetual calendar book that contains the specific dates of every Jewish holiday through the year 2075. If you’re booking your holiday plans way in advance, call me.
Perhaps you’ll join us on Monday, April 9th, 11:00am, in the Chapel, for worship on the seventh day of Passover and for Yizkor. Then, that night, when the sun sets, you can put away your matzah and know that you’ve fulfilled the mitzvah to keep Passover, just as it was written in Torah. Houston is far from Jerusalem, to be sure, but this is our home. Thankfully, the Jewish calendar supports our need to keep pace with the Jewish community, especially in Jerusalem, where seven days of Passover are observed, and to keep pace with the larger community where we live and work everyday.
This weekend, the Christian community celebrates Good Friday and Easter. The meaning of the holiday is found in their hope for renewal and peace bound up in their unique symbols. In many of our Temple families, Easter will be observed as part of interfaith and blended family traditions. Our hope as a congregation is that the themes of Passover and Easter will help us to see what is unique and holy in our respective observances. Then, without need to compare or contrast, we will extend thanksgiving for the highest ideals our faith traditions compel us to achieve.
DAL
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