Zeh hayom... this is the day

By now, you might have noticed that the Jewish annual calendar is very dissimilar to our civil calendar. This can be challenging, and confusing, but it is also very much a gift. Because of the marked differences between civil holidays and Jewish ones, thankfully, Hallmark doesn't own or drive our special days, and isn't yet turning each of our special days into massive marketing opportunities. The few times they do push a line of cards to be sent, such as Chanukah, bar/bat mitzvah celebrations, and Pesach, most of the time, they entirely miss the mark of the deeper meaning of those occasions.

Each Jewish observance is usually surrounded before and after by days or even weeks of preparation, reflection, focused learning, sometimes celebration, and quite often, because we are humans and this seems to be deeply wired into us, eating.

For a few examples, Tisha B'Av which just passed, a very little known observance outside of traditional Judaism, is preceded by three weeks of mourning and followed by several weeks of consolation. The High Holy Days which occur every autumn are preceded by an entire month of preparation and soul reflections. 

Another marked difference between civil calendar days and the Jewish calendar is that our days end and begin at sundown. Because we are an ancient people, going back to days prior to the convenience of electricity, it makes sense that each day would end when the sun went down. But the tradition of sunset ending one day and beginning the next actually harkens back to the story of creation, where it is written that, "...And there was evening, and there was morning--the first day." From that, we derived the tradition that our days end and a new one begins at sundown. This entirely goes against our civil calendar.

The point is this: our Jewish calendar is in no hurry to plop us into the middle of a holy day, have one big boom event, and then it's over and we wait for the next big event. We don't rush. We gradually prepare and ease into the days, in the recognition that each observance is another opportunity to prepare our souls for the great invitation each holiday and holy day offers us. 

Rabbi David Aaron, in his book, Inviting G!d In, does not tell us how to celebrate the holidays; instead, he explains why we should celebrate, so that we can awaken our soulful connection to those days, and to experience the holy days as opportunities to revitalize our souls. This is a far, far cry from the Hallmark marketing blitz and commercial endeavors driving us to buy buy buy for our civil holidays, pushing us to focus on decorations, parties, gifts, and food. There is no spiritual preparation for our civil days.

The Jewish calendar invites us to be grateful for the sacredness of time, to take each day and every moment as a time to awaken to a more mindful and purposeful life. 

"Zeh hayom asah Adonai." THIS is the day G!d has made, let us celebrate and rejoice in it! 

Stop rushing through life. Take a deep breath, slow down, and breathe in the moments that make up our days. As the saying goes, "Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."

What moments today will take away your breath?

Zeh hayom.... THIS is the day.