I hope you had a wonderful High Holidays season!
Succoth and Shemini Atzeret/Simchath Torah (two days if you are outside Israel) are the part of the High Holidays where we get the closest to HaQadosh Barukh Hu that we get every year, after purifying ourselves through the spiritual courtroom of Rosh HaShana, the sin-purging stage of the Ten Days of Return (and if you were really alert and aware, all of Elul as well. It's not just for Sepharadim...), and the fasting and prayer of Yom haKippurim. We virtually become new people every year through this process, and thus we can begin to renew our relationships with G-d and each other.
And we also get closer to our ultimate goal: Final Redemption — the real marriage between G-d and Israel — and beyond.
What we have to remember is that we are still in the engagement stage, not in the full-on married stage. It can get pretty frustrating, including feeling like He doesn't love us. He's more often angry (or at least frustrated) than happy with us. Prayer is more formal and even simple time spent alone with Him (which in Hebrew is called hitbodedut) has guidelines.
For instance, it started raining just as Hol haMoed Succoth began (right after the initial holiday, in Israel), and a young religious man perished due to electrocution on a beach soon after; other members of his family were also injured. These are signs of disfavor for those of us who live here and celebrate the holiday which is the epitome of the holidays on which we are commanded to be happy! And there are so many things where we are holding Him back with regard to the progress of redemption (geula) regarding the state of our nation (meant at least two ways.). Which one of these triggered this display of disappointment? It is hard for us to have any idea. We are, frankly, overwhelmed. We need a place to start. How about here?
G-d has some pretty thick boundaries, doesn't He? But most of them are in our best interest, if we think about it. (I only say "most" rather than "all" because His priorities are first and foremost! Definitely not because He's rejected us, as some others would say.)
All that doesn't justify us going and fooling around, so to speak, with the competition. In this relationship, this refers to other gxds and cultures that really shut G-d out, whether they know it or not. (In Judaism, once a woman is engaged to a man, she is basically married with regard to her relationship with other people. It used to be adhered to more in former times, but not so much now, except among observant Jews. But when it comes to our everyday relationship with HQB"H, this rule still holds, even though we don't enjoy intimacy, joint decision making, and other benefits of marriage, just yet. And I have no idea what this actually entails, so no naughty thoughts, please. 😇)
We still have to keep all this in mind when relating to Him. After all, He created everything — the entire physical environment, both internal and external, that we live in, as well as the spiritual worlds above it. He has the right to set any rules He wants!
Including the right to expect more of Jews than of anyone else. Remember, though, that it's like parents who expect more of their eldest child than the rest of the children. When he, or she, is rebuked or chastised in front of the rest, they are not supposed to chime in and gang up on him or her! We'd like to see these younger ones do better, but we'd be sorely disappointed.
Right now, it seems our national challenge is to give up democracy as a system of government and retake what was revealed to us to be our native system: A three-branched Monarchy based on King David's line, with the Kahuna ("priesthood" sounds so Catholic to me) and the Men of the Great Assembly. Here's a good reason for the change: It's because of democracy that we have to accept the possibility that our thirsty-for-our-blood enemies might win their war against us, using the democratic rules we were bound (and gagged) to by the international bodies (League of Nations and United Nations).
G"D FORBID!!!
You can see that G-d has some pretty thick boundaries. But He'd rather have us within them than outside, for our own good.
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And here's some insight about a connection rarely talked about: that between Shemini Atzeret and Parashath Bereshith, by R' Nachman Kahana.
Wishing a healthy winter to all my readers!
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