Back to Reality
Back to real life: that's the theme song we're singing after the holidays. The kids have been off school, our schedules have been off kilter, our meals have been large and frequent. Time to get back to real life.
But maybe real life IS the holiday season? That time of year when we stop what we're doing for a prolonged length of time to check in with G-d and reexamine our priorities, much like Judaism's national vacation schedule, is quite real. Maybe the rat race we are all on to make a living and go to school and get dinner on the table so we can clean up and go to bed and do it all over again tomorrow, is actually the "false world"?
Back at the beginning of the summer, I "rambled" about my vacation schedule, opining there that: "With each trip, I am making time for the things that are most important - yet that we so often let slide under the deluge of life's "urgent" issues. There's always work, bills, obligations. But everyone will attest that family, friends, community and faith are more important than all of those. As I often teach in my classes, we must make time for our greatest priorities."
When the Torah commands us to celebrate the Jewish holidays, it uses the word "moed." That means an appointed meeting time. Literally, an appointment between G-d and the Jewish people.
Now, if you had on your schedule a meeting with G-d, wouldn't you take off of work, put your phone away, and want the most special people in your life with you? So would I - and that is the definition of a Jewish holiday. And wouldn't you feel that that was the most "real" experience you'd ever had in your life? Isn't, indeed, family, friends, community, and faith, more important than anything?
The Talmud describes our world as "olam hafuch" - an upside-down world. The people that are so adored here are often not on G-d's "top ten" list. Perhaps they are even at the bottom. And many people whom society deems "bottom-feeders" are G-d's favorites - the humble, unassuming folks. I have often thought that this upside-down dynamic is also true of what our world considers real and false. Money, in our world, is real. But in G-d's world it's false. It translates into power and stuff, neither of which carry much weight in G-d's eyes. Money is valued in true priorities only insofar as we use it for good deeds.
Here's another example: status. To us, status is so very real. We feel intimidation at the hands of those more important or respected than ourselves. But G-d's totem pole is completely different from ours. A powerful and charismatic personality or the adulation of the masses is meaningless in His eyes.
So, back to the "real world"? Maybe. Or maybe we will have to wait till the next holiday season to truly go back...
Shabbat Shalom,
Ruchi
