A Holistic View of the Year

 

The cycle of the Jewish year can be viewed as and lived as a healing spiral or medicine wheel. Each festival interweaves with the one before and the one after it to create a truly holistic[1] journey that we tread throughout our lives. When appreciated in this manner, each festival and occasion takes on a dimension that goes far beyond the confines of the festival itself. As you will see as you pass through this Haggadah, there are continual references to other parts of the year, not because of some abstract association but because of its holistic nature. By this I mean that all parts of the cycle are somehow interconnected and relate to every other part. Thus the cycle forms an organic whole. Wholeness is a criterion for Holiness, and Holism bridges the gap between the two.[2]

 

To visualize this in two dimensions, let us contemplate the perfection of the circle. All points on the circumference are of equal distance from the center. Rebbe Nahman of Bratzlav emphasizes the Holiness of the circle, especially during Hasidic ritual dance: moving in a circle; eyes towards the center; no leader, no follower; all leader, all follower; hand outstretched to the common locus; no one nearer, no one further; oneness exemplified; one point; one unending line with neither beginning nor end; harmony with the Divine Oneness; harmony with the Divine Oneness at the center; perfection. The Hebrew word for circle and dance is the same – mahol. Miriam, the Prophetess, danced with the women in a circle after the crossing of the Reed Sea.[3] During the festival of Succot we carry our Four Species – the lulav (palm branch), hadas (myrtle branches), aravah (willow branches) and etrog (species of citrus fruit) – and we encircle the Torah. These species represent our own being. They represent, are metaphors for, various parts of the physical body (spine, eyes, mouth and heart), as well as our emotional, psychic and spiritual bodies. They come together as one; we draw them in and draw them out with our breath. On the seventh day we circle seven times, encompassing the seven Sefirot[4] – the fractal image of the cosmos mirrored in our own bodies.

 

The letter aleph is the silent, first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Its numerical value is therefore one. It represents Unity, undivided consciousness, Oneness.

 

The first letter, however, of the Torah is the bet – “B’reishit – In the beginning of God’s creation of the world of Spirit and the world of Material….” It is the second letter of the alphabet and has a numerical value of two: bifurcation, binary, division, duality, dimensions, up/down, good/evil, male/female. A mystical understanding of this is that the black letters of the Torah are written on the white background of unified existence. As such, the first diagram becomes inverted with the dot at the center of the circle representing our physical “reality” and the area around it, behind it and in front of it becomes the God-field.[5] Of course, the outer circle disappears in the infinitude of Divine existence. With the four species mentioned above, we shake them in the six directions as we stand in the center of our cosmic sphere.

 

The Jewish calendar is a coupling of two, normally non-coupled, clocks, namely the sun and the moon. The sun is the clock of the earth, for it regulates the cycle of the seasons. The summer equinox is always in the summer and the winter equinox is always in the winter. Plant life responds to the amount of sunlight per day in determining the appropriate time to awaken after the winter hibernation. The winds are a function of sunlight warming and cooling the planetary atmosphere. The daily sleep/awake cycle (the circadian rhythm) is entrained to the spin of the planet on its axis vis-à-vis the sun. The annual rhythm of the seasons is determined by the angle of the earth to the sun. In short, the pulse of nature is sun-based. The moon, however, has very little effect on the earth apart from the tides. The amount of the surface of the moon that is facing the sun is constant; what changes is the angle between the sun, the moon and the earth. This results in the phases of the moon, which are independent of the seasons.

 

In a solar-based calendar the months are always fixed to their seasons and, for example, Christmas is always in the winter, whereas the months in a lunar-based calendar continuously regress in relationship to the seasons.[6] Thus, in the Muslim calendar, which is solely based upon the moon, the month of Ramadan can fall out in the summer one year, in the spring a few years later and in the winter a few years after that.

 

In many religions and cultures the sun is assigned a masculine identification or energy whereas the moon is assigned a feminine identification or energy. This designation is also Biblical. In Joseph’s dream, he reports seeing the sun, the moon and eleven stars bowing down to him. His father, Jacob, rebukes him saying, “Shall I and your mother and your brothers come to bow down to you upon the earth?”[7] So the father (male) is the sun and the mother (female) is the moon. That the moon is understood to be a female symbol is rather obvious considering the periodicity of the moon’s phases is so closely aligned with the periodicity of a woman’s fertility cycle.[8] The female energy of the moon influences the female cycle on earth as it does the rhythm of the tides. Coincidently, water is also seen as a female energy.[9]

 

Following this line of argument, in spiritual terms the sun – male – is associated with the world of physicality and the moon – female – is associated with the world of spirituality. So inherent within the Jewish calendar, the union of the solar seasonal cycle and the lunar monthly cycle, is the tension between male and female, between physical and spiritual, between Yang and Yin energies.

 

Pesah is the pace-maker. “And God spoke to Moses and Aaron in the Land of Mitzraim, saying: ‘This month[10] shall be the beginning of the months for you; it will be the first of the yearly cycle of months for you’” (Exodus 12:1–2). And: “The day that you are leaving (Mitzraim) is in the month of the spring” (Exodus 13:4). So Pesah, or more correctly, the New Moon of the month of Nisan, must forever be in the spring season. And here lieth the tension, since, left to its own devices, the month of Nisan would regress relative to the seasons until Pesah would be celebrated in the middle of winter! In order to correct for this aberration a leap year[11] is introduced by adding an extra month seven times every nineteen years.[12] This extra thirteenth month (Adar II) is squeezed into the calendar immediately preceding Nisan.

 

 

 

 

The Yin-Yang symbol that derives from the ancient Chinese Tao or I-Ching philosophy,[13] shows a circle divided equally into a light area and a dark area. Within the light area there is a dark circle and within the dark area there is a light circle. The symmetry is beautiful and profound. It is the symbol of dynamic harmony extending throughout the cosmos.[14] It shows the duality of the Creation enclosed within the Oneness of the Creator. The Yin is the female principle (anima) and the Yang is the male principle (animus). Within the male there is the female element and within the female there is the male element. Earth is Yang; Spirit is Yin. Sun is Yang; moon is Yin. Opposites balance; harmony unites – holism.

 

Now, let the dark area of the Yin-Yang represent the winter months and the light area the summer months and let’s map out the cycle of the Jewish year on its surface[15]. What then is the white circle within the depth of winter? The festival of light – Hanukah! Conversely, the dark circle in the peak of summer? Tisha B’Av, the black hole of destruction and grief! Hanukah, the celebration of the rededication of the Temple and reestablishment of national autonomy; Tisha B’Av, the commemoration of the destruction of the Temple and the loss of national autonomy. Now look carefully at the tail of the summer period. This coincides with Tu B’Shvat, the 15th day of the month of Shvat, almost a month and a half after Hanukah, and is the New Year[16] for trees. In the Judean Hills surrounding Jerusalem the almond trees are in full blossom. There may be snow on the ground, freezing winds blowing through the wadis, but there they are – the blossoming almond trees. Nature is stirring; the sap is once again rising; life returns after the dark night of the soul.

 

Hanukah is that time of our lives in which everything seems dark. We struggle so, but to no avail.[17] No hope visible. Depressed. The only thing to do is light a candle. A small act in order to remember the miracle of life, the fragility of life. Just hang in there and keep looking at the lights.

 

Tu B’Shvat is very different. The end is in sight. Even though it’s still dark the first light is showing on the horizon. You know that you have past through the worst, that you are on the way up, beginning the journey of return.[18] Nature calls.

 

After the month of Shvat comes Adar and on the full moon is the festival of Purim, which celebrates the victory over the destructive forces of Haman.[19] The leitmotiv of Purim is “order out of chaos”; that in the world of duality there seems to be no Master, no rhyme or reason for the events that take place so chaotically around us. It just seems like a big coincidence. The Book of Esther is read, in which the name of God doesn’t even appear. It describes a series of strange events whose interconnectiveness seems very thin at the least. And yet by the end of the story the Jews are victorious and the evil Haman is hung on the gallows intended for Mordehai. And Esther, the hidden Jewish queen, comes out and reveals her true origins and fulfills her life-purpose and the Divine plan. God’s face is hidden, but God’s hand is revealed.[20]

 

Exactly one month later, on the full moon of Nisan, is the Festival of Freedom. Why must Purim occur in the month immediately preceding Pesah? Because we must recognize and acknowledge that there is an inherent order to the world, otherwise we might as well stay in Mitzraim. In fact the celebration on the first night of Pesah[21] is called the Seder – the Order in the Darkness.

 

From the second day of Pesah, the counting of the Omer[22] begins. This is a 7x7+1 day count leading up to Shavuot. The commandment is to literally “count the days.” From a kabbalistic point of view this time is essential for the integration of the self with the Self as we leave slavery behind and move towards ultimate freedom. Each of the seven weeks vibrates with the energy of another sefirah of the Tree of Life: Hesed, Gevurah, Tiferet, Netzah, Hod, Yesod and Malkhut. Each day of each week vibrates with the energy of another sefirah. So the first day of the first week is the energy of Hesed in Hesed; the second day of the first week is Gevurah in Hesed; the third day of the third week is Tiferet in Tiferet, and so on. Since each sefirah relates to the physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual worlds, then as each day is counted so the work of aligning, adjusting, awakening, arousing and attuning on all these levels can take place.[23] The purpose of all this is to be in a state of Oneness[24] when standing at the mountain receiving the Torah. And this is Shavuot.

 

Shavuot is a predominately female festival. It is celebrated through consumption of milk products, symbolizing the Great Mother aspect of the Divine. The Book of Ruth[25] is read, which describes the exploits of Naomi and her daughter-in-law, and the synagogues are decorated with greenery as a reminder of the Garden of Eden.[26] This festival should be the climax of the year. What more could there possibly be after God’s descent on the mountain and the giving of the Torah? But something goes terribly wrong – the Golden Calf is built forty days later and the entire vessel cracks. We weren’t ready to attain such heights. And the year goes tumbling down, through the 17th of Tammuz (the Golden Calf), down and down and down to the black hole of Tisha B’Av (the revolt of the spies in the desert and the destruction of the First and Second Temples).

 

The Ninth of Av (Tisha B’Av) is a Yang (male) energy day, for it literally means the ninth day of the month of the father (Av). It occurs in the middle of the summer when the sun (father – see above) burns the hottest, when the anger of the father strikes out and almost destroys his children. It is a time of deep grieving over the damaged relationship with the father figure of the family.[27] But it is also a time of great healing, for it is said that the possibility of the Messiah is born on this day. Out of the flames the New arises. And six days following the making of peace with the masculine there is the celebration of Tu (15th) B’Av – the love festival where male and female are reconciled.

 

Out of the black hole we rise higher and higher, passing through the month of Elul up to Rosh HaShannah, higher still to Yom Kippur, higher still to Succot, eventually reaching the peak with the festival of joy – Simhat Torah.

 

How does this stretch of the year work? Rosh HaShannah is the time, with the help of the shofar, to remember to “get back on track” – Teshuvah (lit. “to return”) to the flow of our uniquely individual God-given river. This is a male energy dominated period in which the moon is least visible and the King sits in judgment (din). By Yom Kippur we are expected to demonstrate that we have earnestly changed direction and ask for forgiveness for having gone off course.[28] By Succot we show our faith in God by leaving our “secure” homes to live under the Clouds of God’s Glory. The male and female principles come together again as we shake the lulav in the enclosure of the succah and pray for rain and the fertility of the land. This is the time to bring the parts together for a complete healing and integration of the self, as symbolized by the Ushpizin – the Holy Guests[29].

 

Finally we close the succah, put aside the lulav and simply dance with the Torah in ecstatic joy. This is Simhat Torah – the Joy of the Torah.

 

If we now look back at the circle with the point in the middle we must admit that this is only a two dimensional representation of this healing cycle. In truth the point at the center is actually a line that acts to unwrap the circle into a spiral ladder, or Tree of Life, similar to the unfolding of the DNA helix. So that when we return to Pesah year after year we are never in the same place.

So this year – how will you be different?

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[1] The term Holistic was first coined by the statesman Jan Smuts (South African philosopher-statesman, Zionist, father of “Holism,” 1870–1950) in Holism and Evolution (1926, republished in 1973). His contribution to philosophy was mostly forgotten until the 1980s when the holistic movement took hold in the west. Smuts was a Christian Zionist who took every occasion to promote the cause of the nascent Zionist movement. He once said: “Nothing in the whole bloody history of the human race compares with the history of the Jewish people.” 

[2] The word “holism” (and “holistic”) comes from the Greek “holos” which means “whole.” The word “holy” is also derived from the same Greek root, as is “health.” In old and middle English “whole” was spelled “hol,” and then “holle.” The “w” was only added much later. In Hebrew the best translation would be “shalem,” as in the verse: “And Jacob came shalem (whole) to the town of Shekhem.” (Genesis 33:18 and Rashi cit. loc.). Shalem is related to the word “shalom,” meaning “peace.” From a holistic point of view health and peace are intimately connected – inner peace leads to a healthy body; outer peace leads to healthy relationships. Shalom is also one of the names of God and is therefore associated with Holiness. To become Holy is to become Whole. Smuts defines Holism as follows: “…in so far as the elements or parts cohere and coalesce into the structure or pattern of a whole, the whole must itself be an active factor or influence among them; otherwise it is impossible to understand how the unity of a new pattern arises from its elements. Whole and parts mutually and reciprocally influence and modify each other; the one is pliant to and molded by the other; the parts are molded and adjusted by the whole, just as the whole in turn depends on the cooperation of its parts.” (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1927. For an introduction to the theory of holism and its spiritual implications see: www.isss.org/smuts.htm).

[3] See the ceremony of Miriam’s Cup at the end of the Maggid section.

[4] For an explanation of the Sefirot and the Tree of Life, see Section 9.

[5] Field in Hebrew is sadeh, as in: “A man found him (Joseph) wondering in the field” (Genesis 37:15). Deepak Chopra (Ageless Body – Timeless Mind) has reinterpreted the classic Hindu word for field to mean a field as understood in physics, namely a continuum of influence such as an electromagnetic field in which there is inter-connectivity between all the parts in time and space. According to Chopra, this field of consciousness is the basis of the Ayurvedic healing practices. I suggest that the Hebrew use of the term sadeh be equally reinterpreted to mean the field of God-consciousness that pervades all of Creation.

[6] This regression is caused by the fact that the solar year cycle is approximately 365.25 days whereas the lunar year cycle is 354.372. Thus every solar year the lunar year shifts backwards by 11 days. For a fascinating article about neo-lithic awareness of these differences see: www.geocities.com/mythical_ireland/ancientsites/knowth/calendarstone.html.

[7] Genesis 37:10. Interestingly enough, this dream is never actually fulfilled. Joseph manipulates his brothers into bowing down to him but stops himself before he can make his father do the same. In fact the dream could never have been literally fulfilled because Joseph’s mother, Rachel, had long been dead. Rashi suggests that it implies his adopted mother, Bilha.

[8] It is a known female experience that the menstruation cycles of groups of women in close contact begin to resonate together, similar to the physical phenomenon of resonance, such as pendulums swinging on a common frame. Anita Diamond in her book The Red Tent suggests not only that the 28–30 day fertility cycle is attuned to the lunar cycle but also that women in nomadic communities have cycles that coincide exactly with that of the moon such that menstruation always occurs on the new moon.

[9] See the end of the Maggid section for the connection between Pesah, water and Miriam, the Prophetess.

[10] The Hebrew word for month is “hodesh,” which literally means “new,” referring to the moon’s renewal.

[11] A leap year is referred to as a “pregnant year,” thus maintaining the imagery of the male/female union.

[12] See the reference to the Stone of Knowth in note 9.

[13] The Chinese characters of I-Ching are . The second character means a book, a profound book. The first character means ease or change. Since I-Ching is easy, some people call it “The Book of Ease” or “The Book of Changes.” The original Chinese character of  is , which is a symbol combining the sun (top) and moon (bottom). (Quoted from www.chinesefortunecalendar.com/YinYang.htm). The Yin-Yang symbol is constructed by tracing the shadow of the sun cast at a specific time by an 8-foot pole placed in the earth. The length of the shadow is shortest during the summer equinox and longest during the winter equinox. When the entire year of shadow-lengths are plotted radially the result is the Yin-Yang (ibid.).

[14] From a Hasidic perspective it symbolizes the spark of Godliness (light) that exists even in the places of darkest shadow caused by the thickest husks (klipot). And on the contrary, that even in the greatest Tzaddik there must be a trace of darkness.

 

[15] This mapping of the year cycle was first pointed out to me by my friend Jacob Spilman.

[16] The first mishnah in tractate Rosh HaShannah states that there are four New Years: 1st of Tishrei – New year for years; 1st of Nisan – New Year for kings; 1st of Elul – New Year for animals; and 15th of Shvat (Beit Shammai says the 1st of Shvat) – New Year for trees.

[17] The necessity of experiencing the dark night of the soul is beautifully described by Caroline Myss in Spiritual Madness, available at www.myss.com.

[18] In the vision of Ezekiel (1:14) the angelic creatures (the Living Ones) are seen flying towards and away from the Holy Throne (“ratzu v’shuv,” lit. “running and returning”). This process is understood in Hasidism to describe the soul’s relationship with the Divine. We can get close but then we have to go back. Many times this “going back” feels like going back to the same place or level that we came from and that can be very depressing. Rebbe Nahman of Bratzlav assures us that even though it may feel like we’re back at the beginning, we are in fact on a higher rung. And this is the way of learning. Reb Zalman of Boulder says in the name of Rav Baruch Ben Ashlag that when we’re in the light we get blinded to our own faults and it is only when we return to the shade that we can see the work that still needs to be done.

[19] Purim is a post-Biblical festival ordained by the Sages, although a hint of it can be found in Exodus 34:17: “Do not make gods out of your masks,” followed immediately by, “You shall keep the feast of matzah….”

[20] Order out of chaos and chaos out of order have become important components of the “new” physics. See Chaos by James Glick, Order out of Chaos by Ilya Prigogine and Dissipative Spatial Structures by M. L. Kagan (Doctoral thesis, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1987).

[21] The Hebrew calendar contains devices that enable us to use the days of Pesah to predict the day of the week upon which each of the year’s festivals will fall. The code is aleph-taf, i.e., the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet – alef and taf – are paired; so are the second and the penultimate letters, bet and shin, and so on. The first day (aleph) of Pesah will be the day on which Tishah (begins with the letter taf) B’Av will fall; Shavuot (begins with letter shin) falls on the second day of Pesah, and so on.

 

[22] See the Counting of the Omer, Section 9

[23] The totality of this work would be the equivalent of a Jewish Yoga practice.

[24] “And Israel camped as One,” Rashi on Exodus 19:3. This is on a community level but is also understood to be on an individual level since the two are inseparable. This state of Oneness was a prerequisite for receiving the Torah. Two years later the same state was achieved as the people left the mountain en route for the Promised Land. This is hinted at in the identical gifts offered by the twelve princes in Numbers 7. Unfortunately, in both cases the fall occurred not long after: the Golden Calf and the complaining in the desert (Exodus 32 and Numbers 11:1 respectively).

[25] In English the word “ruthless” means “one lacking in compassion.” A lesser-used word is “ruthful,” i.e., full of compassion. Compassion in Hebrew is rahamim, which in the singular is rehem, meaning “womb.”

[26] The Midrash on Genesis 1:31 (“The Sixth Day”) suggests that the sixth day refers to the sixth day of Sivan – Shavuot – implying that the giving of the Torah is the completion of the Creation.

[27] Sometimes the role of the father is taken on by the mother of the family (“who wears the pants?”).

[28] The word for sin in Hebrew (het) literally means to miss the mark. Iniquity (avon) means to be off balance and transgression (peshah) means to go over the boundaries. So following the analogy from Zen archery, when the archer releases the arrow, if there is some inner imbalance within the archer’s emotional and spiritual self then the arrow will miss the target and go out of bounds. See: Zen in the Art of Archery, E. Herrigel (Arkana, 1987).

[29] 1st night Avraham and Rivka, 2nd night Yitzhac and Sarah, 3rd Yaacov and Ruth, 4th Moshe and Miriam, 5th night Aaron and Hannah, 6th night Yoseph and Tamar, 7th night David and Rahel (see Section 9 for a different configuration)