struggling over Yom Tov
Apr. 3rd, 2002 01:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cellioToday 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.)
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.)
Yizkor
Date: 2002-04-05 07:32 am (UTC)Locally, the congregations that observe a 7-day Pesach do Yizkor on the seventh day. That means turnout was really low yesterday morning at Tree of Life (Conservative), because many of the members of that minyan grew up with 8th-day Yizkor and went elsewhere for it -- even though Tree of Life had done it the previous day and they had the option to attend that. (I don't know if they did Yizkor twice, or went elsewhere both days so they could get it once and on the 8th day.)
I actually don't like attending Yizkor services. My parents (thank God) are alive, and none of my grandparents were Jewish. I'm not there for any personal connection. And I'm aware of the taboo against attending if your parents are alive. (Don't believe in it, but it's another contributor of minor weirdness.) So while I feel bad about working that day, I don't feel bad about missing Yizkor.
Re: Yizkor
Date: 2002-04-05 09:36 am (UTC)My parents have told me that they don't mind if I go while they're alive, but basically have said that since I don't have to do Yiskor, they are fine with me leaving. And in this case, I agree.
Some people have gotten very offended at my leaving during Yiskor - "Six million died in the Shoah, and you're leaving during Yiskor?" - but I think that's really confusing the issue. Yom Hashoah is its own holiday, and I try to respect the memory of those who died in the shoah in other ways.