Jewish Counting
Sat, May 12, 2012
Bat Mitzvah of Sarah Molly North
On page A3 of yesterday’s Washington Post, there was a headline that made me feel so much better:
“2012: It’s not the end of the world as we know it after all.”
Whew! I was so worried that the Mayan prediction of the end of the world on December 23rd, 2012 — or 21st, depending on whose counting — was going to mean that I wouldn’t get to take my next group to Israel in December – and I am really looking forward to that trip!
Thankfully, archaeologists have uncovered a house in the Mayan city of Xultun, with a calendar that reveals new information, dating 7000 years into the future, indicating that the Mayans did plan for the earth to exist after this December. What a relief!
Every culture has its own way of counting time. The Mayans were expert astronomers, so much so that some speculate that they came here from another planet.
In Sarah’s portion today, she read Leviticus 23:2 which states, “These are my fixed times… which you shall proclaim as sacred occasions…” As my dear friend, Rabbi Sally Priesand wrote twenty-five years ago:
“Parashat Emor reminds us that Judaism is a religion of time and that holidays in our tradition are not just days off, but occasions to celebrate time and make it holy. To be a Jew is to understand that every moment of life represents an opportunity that will not come again, a chance to make our days count.”
We now find ourselves in the counting of the days from Passover to Shavuot, the seven weeks, 49 days of what we call the Omer. For our Christian friends, there are 50 days from Easter to Pentecost, which is borrowed from our calendar’s idea of counting the barley offering for those seven weeks from one holiday to the next.
But, Rabbi Priesand reminds us of something special about the Jewish way of counting time, “ we count up an not down.” In our every day culture, where the countdown to Christmas begins with Halloween, we find ourselves counting down to the next event on our calendar. I wonder if Sarah was counting: 2 years until my Bat Mitzvah when she got her date, six months to my Bat Mitzvah, two days left. We are always counting down, from the space lift off to the last day of school; we cross off days on our calendar.
My daughter-in-law is expecting our first grandchild, due on the 28th of May and we are counting down sixteen days from today…but we know that the baby is probably on Jewish time. He will come whenever he is ready.
Jewish counting is not about counting down. We don’t count how many days are left until the end of the world, or left until the festival of Shavuot, which will begin at sundown on May 26th. Each evening during the Omer, we announce the number of days that have already passed, instead of the number of days to come. E.g., “Today is the 35th day of the Omer, making it five weeks of the omer.” [Rabbi Priesand teaches,]
“This gives us an opportunity to appreciate more fully every day of the count, reminding us that in Judaism the journey is as meaningful as the destination and how we prepare ourselves for our encounter with God is as important as standing on Sinai.” [URJ Living Torah 5/17/97]
Sarah, your parents look back on your whole thirteen years today. Your dad remembered that moment in the swimming pool when you were a little girl, and your mom remembered your special way of speaking as a two year old. It is a ‘parent thing’ to savor each day of a child’s past as we mark a life cycle moment in the present. I know I will remember my son’s bris, when I am at my grandson’s. We Jews look back a lot. We don’t know what the future holds, although we try to always hope that the world won’t be ending on our watch. We cherish our past and relive it every year:
We come to temple on the High Holy days, in the fall, thinking about all those we have loved and lost, and all of the deeds of our past year, rather than promising to diet in the future. Each of our holidays is a celebration of days that have passed – the Chanukah candles mark how many days we have celebrated, adding a candle each night, rather than how many days we have left to shop. And even though I know Jews who count how many days are left of eating matzah, all of Passover is about remembering the days when we were slaves in Egypt.
Sarah, you have become an expert in Jewish counting. And you have taught us the most important lesson of all today. You taught us that this Bat Mitzvah day is not the end of your Jewish life, your synagogue life, and your life of living Jewish values, as so many young Jews tend to do elsewhere, similar to the Mayan end of the world. Rather, Sarah Molly North, commits to live and savor every day, and remember her Jewish past each and every year, and live all of our Torah’s values, for the rest of your life. You will constantly be in the process of looking back and counting. Today is the fourth anniversary of my Bat Mitzvah, the tenth anniversary of my Confirmation.
This is a special time of year for Jewish counting. Our end of the world happens whenever a young, or old, Jew stops remembering, practicing, belonging, and observing. Our future is dependent on remembering our past.
Sarah is the promise of a bright future for the Jewish people. She will always look back, count, remember, make holy the days in our year, the days of her life, as Jews have been doing for 5772 years. And for that Sarah, we are so grateful. A year from now, I hope you will remember the anniversary of this day by coming to temple to read your Torah portion at Minyan Makers. And perhaps you can add a blessing:
Blessed are You, Adonai my God, who has given me the ability to count my blessings by counting my days.”
You will look back on May 12th and remember that it was the first day of your Jewish adulthood. And I hope and pray that memory makes you smile.
Shabbat Shalom.