I have to admit that managing the calendar in my former life as a church musician was significantly easier than dealing with the Jewish calendar. In the church world, everything proceeds at an even pace. Early September is the start of the program year with worship schedules, education programs, and music ensembles commencing for the fall. As the new routine is set, the four-month run-up to the first of the major holiday seasons begins. The holiday season itself is quite busy, but is followed immediately by a week-long break in which very little happens and everyone catches their breath. Just after we observe the New Year, we return refreshed and ready for the next four-month run-up to the second major holiday season. There is another short break before wrapping up the program year and coasting for the summer. We worked hard, but we did it at a sane pace.
The confluence of the Jewish holidays and the start of the program year in the early fall produces a very different beast. When you have the two major holidays ten days apart instead of four months apart, both the workload and the stakes increase dramatically. The preparation doesn’t take place during the regular season but over the summer when vacation plans complicate the ability to accomplish things efficiently. In the midst of the holidays, fall programming begins — sometimes just before, sometimes right after, and often right in the middle of the holiday season, since the manner in which the school calendar and Jewish holidays are juxtaposed varies from year to year. Throw an additional 8-day Festival into the mix and you end up with a month-long explosion that moves immediately into a busy year — all with no chance to catch your breath.
There are some good things and some problematic things that result. By having our most important and profound holidays at the very start of the season gives clear focus to the year that follows. The Ten Days of Repentance demand self-examination and, at least for a time, help us to live our lives more intentionally. An eight-day season of thanksgiving encourages us to live our lives with gratitude. The beginning of the year is highly stimulating.
Of course the beginning of the year is also highly exhausting, especially for those who have added responsibilities to family or community during this time. I find managing the logistics of this season overwhelming. Much of the time I find myself charging through the day with as much energy as I can muster, checking things off my list as fast as I can.
And then there is the brief moment when my work forces me to stop. I can’t quickly check the next thing off my list because the next “thing” is a person standing in front of me who requires my attention. That person doesn’t need me to do anything for them; that person needs me to be present for them. At that moment, I realize that, in managing the work of the season, I’ve allowed myself to be blown off course. I’ve been “doing” instead of “being.”
This is the point at which I need to remind myself that all of the logistical things I do to help people have the best spiritual or educational or communal experience are not nearly as effective as being fully present for someone. While it often seems that we can accomplish more with our skills, the truth is that we have the potential to be profoundly more effective with our humanity. It is very difficult to keep this in mind when the world is swirling around us. But I am grateful when I find myself standing in front of someone who reminds me that the simple gift of our humanity is the point.
