What's Still with Us?
With the Jewish date approaching mid-Sivan, a major "busy" section of the calendar is behind us. Pesach and Shavuot were linked by the counting of the Omer, and they sandwiched between them Yom HaSho'a, Yom HaZikaron, Yom HaAtzmaut, Pesach Sheini, Lag BaOmer, Yom Yerushalayim, 3 days of Rosh Chodesh, BaHa"B, and the 3 Preparatory Days (for receiving the Torah). Each special day had its special prayers and/or observances and/or thoughts and feelings.

A lot of detail stays behind us. But a lot of the thinking and feeling stays with us, or at least, SHOULD stay with us. And we have to be perceptive enough to know what to keep with us all year long.

Back to the Seder for a moment. In every generation, a person must see it as if he himself came out of Egypt. In other words, don't view the Exodus as a once-upon-a-time story, but rather as a fresh experience that happened to you.

Y'tzi'at Mitzrayim is so central to Torah and mitzvot, that it always must be fresh in our minds, and personalized by each of us, so that it has the proper effect on us and the way we live as Jews.

Similarly, BAYOM HAZEH... teaches us that Torah must be fresh in our eyes as if it was given today. This too is a necessary attitude for proper learning and observance of Torah.

Back to the Seder. The question-answer method of transmission of Judaism from one generation to the next is our year-round style of education, not a 1-night experience. In every generation, enemies rise to vanquish us, but G-d saves us from their hands. This too must not be left behind when we put the Pesach dishes away. This is an all-year, lifelong "policy" of Jewish life.

Yom HaShoa might give us the ability to focus on the Holocaust and other episodes in Jewish History, but the Holocaust's impact upon us requires our attention, thoughts, resolutions, all the time.

The awareness of the cost in lives, of the sacrifices that accompanied the establishment of a Jewish State in Eretz Yisrael and the reunification under Jewish auspices of Jerusalem should be with us always, not just marked annually. 

There really isn't anything that we commemorate once a year that has no place in our consciousness all year long. With the counting of the Omer and Shavuot behind us, a personal stock-taking is appropriate for each of us.