Preparations — Then and Now
August 20, 2008
What tasks need to be done by the community in anticipation of the New Year? In ancient times as well as our own, the weeks leading up to the major, festive seasons were filled with the bustling activities of preparation. So we read in the Mishnah: (Shekalim 1:1)
On the first of Adar [i.e., the last Hebrew month of the calendar year] they make proclamations regarding the shekel tax and kilayim [the prohibition of forbidden vegetable mixtures as proscribed by the Torah]. On the fifteenth [of Adar] they read the Megillah in [walled] cities, and begin to repair the roads, plazas, and mikva’ot [ritual baths], and attend to all public works, and mark the graves, and send forth inspectors regarding kilayim.”
Just what were these preparations all about, and why were they so necessary every year? First, the Torah (in Exodus 30:12) commands the collection of a half-shekel tax from every male over the age twenty. While in its biblical setting, this may have been a one-time duty, later generations required its collection every year by the first of Nisan (the first month of the year) for the maintenance of the Temple and to pay for the daily sacrifices that were offered there on behalf of the nation. So one month prior to the due date, the government reminded people to pay the tax.
The leadership also called upon farmers to inspect their fields to remove forbidden mixtures (called kilayim) that might have grown together over the winter. By the time Purim arrived (in the middle of Adar) the rainy season was over, and only a month remained until the first holiday of the New Year, Passover, when Jerusalem would be filled with pilgrims making their way to observe the festival. Thus, it was important to clear the paths and plazas that would be used by pilgrims, and help them remain ritually pure by refilling ritual baths and refreshing the markers that indicated the presence of a grave. (Accidentally stepping on a grave would render a person impure and thus unable to enter the Temple or eat the Paschal Lamb.)
Unlike the days when the Temple yet stood in Jerusalem as recalled by our Mishnah passage, the springtime festival of Passover in the first month is no longer the time of primary gathering of the masses of Jewish men and women. Rather, in our era it is in the 7th month of the Jewish calendar, the month of Tishrei, when the community gathers in the largest assemblies of the year for the observance of the Days of Awe — Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, followed by Sukkot and Simchat Torah. But just like our ancestors, the need for preparation in the weeks leading up to our major gathering is equally vital. There’s a lot to do in anticipation of the New Year, and it involves a communal effort on behalf of dozens of devoted Temple volunteers, leadership, professional and support staff.
In many ways, though, we have many of the same or similar tasks to complete. Reminders were sent for collection of “taxes”, which are for us the annual tzedakah donations of membership dues to the synagogue in order to maintain the cornerstone institution of our Jewish community. We likewise see to the completion of necessary construction projects to keep up the physical structure of our house of worship, which this year includes completion of the extension of our air conditioning system and the construction of our new, lower bima in the Sanctuary. Fortunately, the local town governments take pretty good care maintaining our roads to assure safe and direct access for our worshippers, but we’ve likewise done our part by completing the re-sealing and re-lining of our parking lots.
Like our forbearers, we’ve seen to the cleaning and maintenance of our communal burial grounds, not so much out of concern for the possibility of rendering one ritually impure (a designation which is no longer particularly relevant to most contemporary, Reform Jews), but in order to honor the resting places of our departed dear ones, and in preparation for our annual Cemetery Memorial Service during the upcoming festival season. In addition, our Religious School text books are ordered, teaching faculty hired, and classes arranged in anticipation of the start of a new year of Jewish learning. And the list goes on and on as another full year of communal, social, educational, and inspirational occasions and activities lie ahead.
But not only do we as a communal institution have significant preparation to do in these weeks before the New Year, but as individuals we do as well. And that reality is likewise a challenge for us all. How, then, are YOU preparing for the Days of Awe and the New Year ahead? How are YOU getting ready — today and tomorrow — in order to assure that the observance of our High Holydays will be a time of meaning, change, beauty, joy and significance in YOUR life and in lives of your dear ones?
Indeed, there is much to be done even before our gathering, and clearly that’s the way it’s been for thousands of years.
Links 8/3/08
August 3, 2008
