Day 46

The Jewish people celebrate many holidays throughout the year. The objective of Pesach, Shavuot, Succot, Purim, and Chanukah is to inculcate in us an appreciation that the miraculous events that happened long ago to our People occurred because God is orchestrating our history hands-on. We recognise and celebrate numerous times a year the fact that God is a constant Presence in our lives and continuously engages His covenantal people. We do not merely conduct a Pesach seder, we relive the Exodus. We don’t simply recall that God gave us a Torah, we re-enact the Har Sinai experience. By lighting the menorah, we recreate the experience of God’s direct Providence in our national experiences. We do this to make sure we are aware that God’s involvement in our lives is not consigned to history, but is continuous and happening in real time. When we pray, we address God as both Elokenu and Elokei avotenu. Elokei avotenu means the God of our fathers who inter- ceded on their behalf in the most obvious of ways. Our generation, however, addresses just as fervently Elokenu (our God) because we have borne witness to God in recent history. Our generation has two new holidays to celebrate, two recent occasions that have revealed once again the Hand of God in the experience of the Jewish people. Yom HaAtzmaut and Yom Yerushalayim – days that testify and celebrate that God is present and involved in the day- to-day journey of Jewish destiny.

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