Parshat Pinhas --
Universalism and Nationalism as Reflected in the Holiday
Experience - 19 Tammuz 5763
By Rav Avi Weiss
This week's
portion lists the festivals and the sacrifices offered to
commemorate these days. (Numbers, Chapters 28, 29) While other portions
mention
only the three major pilgrimage holidays, Passover, Shavuot, and
Sukkot, (Exodus 23:14-16; 34:18-22; Deuteronomy 16) here (as in
Leviticus
23:4-44), is included Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The different listings
speak to different approaches to the holiday
experience which also shed
light on different goals of the Jewish experience.
When only the three holidays, Passover, Shavuot
and Sukkot are listed, they
reflect the cornerstone of what makes up our nationhood. On Passover we
became a people as we left Egypt - Am
Yisrael was born. On Shavuot we
received the law - Torat Yisrael. And on Sukkot, the festival which marks
our marching through the desert
to Israel, we commemorate the gift of the
land of Israel - Eretz Yisrael. Indeed, the four species taken on Sukkot are
viewed by many as
especially connected to the land. From this perspective,
the holidays send a very nationalistic message. This message became
the
foundation of the Religious Zionist movement - the people of Israel, Am
Yisrael, according to the Torah of Israel, Torat Yisrael, in
the land or
Israel, Eretz Yisrael.
But in this week's portion, the list is expanded to include Rosh Hashanah
and Yom Kippur.
One could argue that the actual order presented - Passover,
Shavuot, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur Sukkot - point to another aspect
of
Judaism, that of the universal vision of our religion.
Through the Exodus from Egypt we physically came into being; we
emerged as a
people. But, a nation without a purpose, just as a body without a soul, has
no meaning. Hence Shavuot, the day we received
the Torah which commemorates
the infusion of spirituality into the physicality of Am Yisrael.
While Passover and Shavuot mark the
full development of the Jewish people,
the trend now veers into another direction by presenting Rosh Hashanah and
Yom Kippur. Rosh
Hashanah marks the anniversary of God creating all of
humankind. This theme reaches its crescendo on Yom Kippur with the reading
of Yonah
(Jonah), the Jewish prophet who was told by God to take the message
of repentance to Ninveh, a heathen city. And Sukkot is actually the
most
universal of festivals because during the week of Sukkot we offer seventy
sacrifices symbolic of all of the nations of the
world.
Passover and Shavuot speak to the development of the Jewish people. The
remaining holidays aim to fulfill our task of
redeeming the Jewish people
through which the entire world will be redeemed. It is no accident that
these latter holidays fall seven
months after Passover. Seven can be
vocalized savea, to be satiated. When becoming a light to the nations of the
world, our mission is
fully realized.
There has been long debate whether Judaism is fundamentally nationalistic or
universalistic. The two different
listings of the order of the holidays, as
found in the Torah, indicate that we are really both.
Some Jews express their Judaism
by separating themselves from the larger
world. Others feel that their mission to perfect the world is so predominant
that they forget
their roots. The two listings of the holidays indicate that
both approaches are flawed. Real creativity does not come from absolutes,
but
rather from the tension between opposite ideas.
Rabbi Avi Weiss
