The Jewish Holidays Are One Love Story

Most of us think of the Jewish holidays as separate events.

Tisha B’Av is sad. Rosh Hashanah is serious. Yom Kippur is even more serious. Sukkot is happy. And Simchat Torah—we dance.

But what if they are not separate at all? What if the Jewish calendar is telling us one continuous story?

It is the story of a relationship. A relationship that becomes distant, begins to heal, grows closer, and finally ends with a dance.

And like every meaningful relationship, it begins with realizing how much we miss each other.

Tisha B’Av: Something Is Missing. The journey begins on Tisha B’Av.

We mourn the destruction of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. But we are not only mourning a building that was destroyed thousands of years ago. We are mourning closeness.

The Temple represented a time when G-d’s presence could be felt in a very real way. Its destruction represents distance—between us and G-d, between one Jew and another, and sometimes even between us and our own souls.

Why do we cry? Because you only miss something that matters to you. Sometimes the first sign that a relationship can be repaired is simply realizing, “I miss what we had.”

Elul: I Want to Come Home

Then comes Elul. The mood begins to change. There is a beautiful verse associated with Elul: Ani l’dodi v’dodi li — “I am my Beloved’s, and my Beloved is mine.”

Suddenly we are no longer simply mourning what was lost. We begin wanting to come closer again. That is really where teshuvah begins. We often translate teshuvah as “repentance,” but its deeper meaning is return.

Coming home. Before a person changes, he has to want something different. Elul asks a........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)