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

[goljerp]

And, correspondingly, the last day of Sukkot
But that's easier, because it's at least got a name of its own - Shmini Atzeret.

The end of Pesach is just... well... the end of Pesach.

Despite the fact that my shul realized that enough people wanted to work and go to Yizkor that they had a 7am Yizkor minyan yesterday, there were a good number of people who were at shul today and presumably didn't go to work.

I find it meaningful as a way of making the end of pesach meaningful as well as the beginning. It's a way of bookending the holiday, rather than letting it taper off. And if you think of the fact that pesach and shavuot are themselves bookending a period of 7 weeks, you get some nice symmetry.

And some cool torah readings as well... on the 7th day you get to cross the red sea again... and 8th day, of course, has Yiskor...

I ended up having meals with friends on Wednesday lunch & dinner and Thursday lunch, and that helped a lot, too!

I am working tomorrow (ugh, later today) so I'd better stop LJing...

[cellio]

But that's easier, because it's at least got a name of its own - Shmini Atzeret.

Yeah, but ask even moderately-educated folks what that means and, beyond translating the words, they probably won't say anything useful. :-) I mean, it's another day of Sukkot, special name or not -- you don't do anything differently, and it doesn't really feel any different. Now Simchat Torah feels different, and on the Israeli calendar it gets plopped right on top of Shmini Atzeret, but that presumably doesn't help people who believe in two days of Yom Tov.

7am Yizkor? Eeek. I presume there was also a later option...

Shmini what?

[goljerp]

Shmini Atzeret does get short shrift, especially for a holiday which has its own name and is specifically mentioned in the torah.

When I was at Brandeis, "Shmini what?" was the common response of people to the holiday.

I mean, it's another day of Sukkot, special name or not -- you don't do anything differently, and it doesn't really feel any different.

According to some people, Shmini Atzeret is a day where it's optional to eat in the sukkah. So it's slightly different than the rest of sukkot.

At one point I was working on a bit of purim torah around shmini atzeret, with people trying to understand it like the other holidays ("So, have to eat in the sukkah, right?" "No." "So we can't eat in the sukkah?" "No..." "But it's traditional to eat cheescake?" "No, that's shavuot."... and so on. It was funnier, really...)

[goljerp]

I presume there was also a later option
Yep, normal minyan at 10am.