struggling over Yom Tov

[cellio]

Today is the seventh day of Pesach. The Torah states quite clearly that this is a festival day (like the first). Yet here I am at work, just like last year and the year before and...

I don't know why I have so much trouble with this one. (And, correspondingly, the last day of Sukkot.) There is natural resistance -- it's another vacation day, and clumps of holidays disrupt work schedules already, and there's no real ritual associated with it (unlike the seder), and -- locally, at least -- there's basically no community encouragement for it outside the Orthodox subset. (Yes, everyone has holiday services, but the presumption that of course you're observing the holiday is absent.)

But the Torah tells us it is a festival and to "do no work", just like the others, and that ought to be sufficient. And every year I feel a little more guilty and become a little more aware that I am sinning.

Maybe next year I will finally overcome this. (Once I start, I will feel bound to do it every time -- no "just when it's convenient" observances here.)

Comments

[celebrin.livejournal.com]

Here is where my melting pot view of Judaism comes into play.

As I don't believe that homosexuality is wrong, that means that some things in the Torah have changed. I have always believed that the Torah is a living document, and that means that it grows and changes.

There are so many days in the Torah where you're supposed to "do no work" that many places of employment will start having fits if you're out that much. (Unless you happen to work for a temple) Since, being at work is necessary to your survival you have to pick and choose the days and times that are most important to you.

If, next year, you feel compelled to take the day, by all means do so. If not, find a way to remember the departure from Egypt in your own way that is between you and G-d.

To quote one of the wisest Rabbi's I have ever met.

"There are some people who would love to wrap themselves in the Torah. Not me. If I wrapped myself in Torah...yes I would understand the words but I couldn't see the world that I should apply them to. The Torah would blind me, and cut off my air, and I couldn't see my children to teach them Torah.
No, Instead I will wrap myself around the Torah. I will absorb its goodness into my heart. I will absorb its lessons into my soul and teach the world by my example. I would find that some parts are best left in the time of Moshe, and others are truer today than any other. "

Either way...happy end of Pesach to all.

Sorry to run on.

[cellio]

Good points!

I also believe that Torah is a living document, to be interpreted in each generation. (I do not believe it is the precise word of God, though I believe it is the result of an encounter with God at Sinai.) There are certainly things in the Torah that I don't do, either.

I do, however, strive for consistency. If I'm going to observe the Torah-mandated holidays, I should either do all of them or have a well-thought-out explanation for why I skip some. I shouldn't "just not get around to it", and that's what I've been doing with the last day of Pesach. Now that it has bubbled up to the conscious layer, I have to think about it and make a decision.

This has worked for me in the other direction once, but I'm going to make a separate journal entry.