Sadness at the End of the Chag: This Awesome Time
I have always had difficulty leaving a Jewish holiday (chag) behind; Pesach is no different: it starts with frenetic preparations, cleaning, organizing, moving kitchen implements around, rearranging cabinets, in other words--with a BANG: and the climax is the Seder, or if one lives outside of Israel, TWO Seders even.
But it ends with a wimper, quietly, ending a Yom Tov (holy day) when one says Yizkor (prayers for remembering those loved ones & others who have died). Perhaps there is a special, last seudah called Seudat ha-Mashiach (the festive meal for the coming of the Messiah), but even that, if done, has a sadness to it, a longing, a yearning.
So it was for me, again, this Pesach. Didn't it only just start (I can never get tired of eating shmurah matzah)? I think we should petition the Rabbanim for a Pesach extension, say, to two weeks instead of one. Then at least, all the hard work would seem to go a longer way.
But I definitely feel a sadness. . ..we reached such a great height on Pesach, a spiritual 'high.' And now, like a wisp, it's gone; but we count the 49 days of the Omer, to reach another spiritual high, the giving of the Torah on Har Sinai. The sefirot (the attributes of the counting of the Omer) are significant and very meaningful, and if one takes them, day by day, to heart, they can change one's life.
The chagim, especially the shalosh regalim, take me into a different spiritual dimension. I am now looking ahead to the next one, to Shavu'ot.
That comforts me.
Listen to Rabbi Lipsker talking about this awesome time in the Jewish calendar.
But it ends with a wimper, quietly, ending a Yom Tov (holy day) when one says Yizkor (prayers for remembering those loved ones & others who have died). Perhaps there is a special, last seudah called Seudat ha-Mashiach (the festive meal for the coming of the Messiah), but even that, if done, has a sadness to it, a longing, a yearning.
So it was for me, again, this Pesach. Didn't it only just start (I can never get tired of eating shmurah matzah)? I think we should petition the Rabbanim for a Pesach extension, say, to two weeks instead of one. Then at least, all the hard work would seem to go a longer way.
But I definitely feel a sadness. . ..we reached such a great height on Pesach, a spiritual 'high.' And now, like a wisp, it's gone; but we count the 49 days of the Omer, to reach another spiritual high, the giving of the Torah on Har Sinai. The sefirot (the attributes of the counting of the Omer) are significant and very meaningful, and if one takes them, day by day, to heart, they can change one's life.
The chagim, especially the shalosh regalim, take me into a different spiritual dimension. I am now looking ahead to the next one, to Shavu'ot.
That comforts me.
Listen to Rabbi Lipsker talking about this awesome time in the Jewish calendar.
Comments
(Don't know how many people agree with me, though...)
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