It has been a few months since my last post but I knew as I came to the Yarzeit ( end of the mourning period) of my mother's passing last year that February was going to be hard. Here we are the weekend before the start of Passover, the first of four new year celebrations in the Jewish calendar and it is time for renewal. As I make my seder plans and choose my recipes I want to take a moment to put in perspective where I am in my life right now, as we all should once in a while. Many people think there are too many rules to follow in life whether you believe in religion or not. Staying healthy, spiritually and physically, has rules too. So, I would like to take a moment here and use the Bible, an already defined set of rules, to help me sort out the mishagos going on in my world and maybe in yours too.
Here is a quick review of the four new years for Jews.
The 1st of Nisan is the first month in the Hebrew calendar. It falls around April and signals the first New Year according to the Bible. Its purpose is to mark the date from which the years of the Kings were counted and we associate it with the holiday of Passover. In this holiday we clean out our pantries, literally, and throw out or "sell" the bread in our cupboards. For dieters this is a great starting point to reset your eating habits as you do not eat any leavened products for one week. Take that Atkins and everyone else who decided bread was a bad idea.
The second new year according to the Bible is the 1st of Elul, the sixth month of the Hebrew calendar, and we could think of it as Biblical Tax Day. This is the time of year where in the Ancient Days all the Tribes would bring a tithe of wine , animals, grain to Jerusalem and donate to the Priests. This served at least two purposes that still make sense today. First, it allowed the Priests to have an accounting of heads and treasure throughout the land and to speak with the heads of the households to gain information of what gains or losses that were happening at that time. Second, since the Priests technically never left the holy Temple and did not farm or grow wine this was the method of how they were fed and as thanks the Tribes were blessed for another year. Today this new year is forgotten in its original purpose but we use it as a marker to get ready for Rosh Hashanah. However, for health purposes our lesson is to be accountable to each other and say a blessing now and then to give thanks for the life we were given.
The third New Year is the 1st of Tishrei, actually the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar and is associated with the holiday of Rosh Hashanah, the "Head of the New Year" where the actual count of time in years takes place as in 2013 is 5773. Spiritually, we could use this time to meditate and think back over what went right and things we might do differently in the coming year.
The fourth new year according to the Biblical calendar is the 15th of Shvat and is known as the New Year of the Trees. Today, as in the ancient times, it is the Jewish holiday of Tu B'Shvat where its purpose was to count the age of the trees. It is springtime in Israel at this time of year and almond trees begin to flower, so marking this time is important, as agriculture was and is very important to survival in this land. As this holiday takes place in January which begins "diet season", a reminder to eat fruits, vegetables and nuts, offers a spiritual purpose to what most Americans are already doing.
My children are really adults now and this year trying to host seders of their own. This is an exciting milestone in my life as I say goodbye to the seders of my past. Now, I share with them recipes and stories of what happened at the seders of my youth and with their help, create new memories that they can tell their children.
Chag Sameah
Happy Passover
