The True Point of the Holiday
Where do you find inspiration? When do you experience joy?
In life, there are ordinary days and holidays, times for work and times for leisure, moments of inspiration and moments of adversity.
By nature, we are inspired by the novelty of a holiday, by an extraordinary event, by a chance to break our routine and spend time with the people we love.
But the true secret of life, and the true purpose of the holidays, is that once we experience a change of pace, we are able to reexamine and experience the blessings of our everyday life. The ultimate purpose of a “getaway” is to fall in love with our daily existence.
Indeed, in this week's Torah portion, G-d tells Moses about the commandment to offer unique offerings on the holidays, beginning with the most exceptional holiday, the holiday of Passover, which celebrates G-d’s direct intervention to save His people Israel. Passover reminds us of the miraculous power of G-d to perform miracles, defy the laws of probabilities, and bring salvation. Yet, the list of unique offerings for each of the holidays begins with the commandment about the daily offerings offered year round:
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Command the children of Israel and say to them: My offering, My food for My fire offerings, a spirit of satisfaction for Me, you shall take care to offer to Me at its appointed time. And you shall say to them: This is the fire offering which you shall offer to the Lord: two unblemished lambs in their first year each day as a continual burnt offering. (28:1-3)
The reason the Torah mentions the daily offerings in the list of holiday offerings is to remind us that G-d’s greatness can be felt not only by experiencing incredible miracles but also by observing the predictable laws of nature. Once we experience a miracle, once we experience G-d’s revelation in the remarkable moments of history and in the inspired moments of our life, we reach a deeper realization. We realize that the ordinary is a miracle. We realize the blessing of the “mundane”, the inspiration and joy that can be found in every moment of life; in every sunrise, every sweet breeze, in the curiosity of a child and the beauty of a flower.
The purpose of a holiday, then, is not to escape the everyday, but rather to help us realize that every day can be meaningful, spiritually rich with connection to our soul, to G-d, and to the people we love.