{"id":25225,"date":"2012-05-22T18:11:49","date_gmt":"2012-05-22T18:11:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?p=25225"},"modified":"2016-12-04T09:05:29","modified_gmt":"2016-12-04T14:05:29","slug":"remembering-in-the-past-we-see-our-future-eliyahu-safran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/remembering-in-the-past-we-see-our-future-eliyahu-safran\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering: In the Past, We See Our Future"},"content":{"rendered":"

The past is never dead.\u00a0 It\u2019s not even past.<\/p>\n

– William Faulkner<\/p>\n

We Jews are a people of memories.\u00a0 Our past defines who we are.\u00a0 The past infuses our religious lives with context, purpose and meaning.\u00a0 How could we be <\/em>if not for knowing how we were<\/em>?<\/p>\n

Our festivals and yamim tovim<\/em>\u00a0speak to our relationship with our past in unique and powerful ways.\u00a0 However, even in this uniqueness, Shavuot stands out.<\/p>\n

Reb Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev offered three explanations as to why Sha\u00advuot is also referred to as Atzeret, even though the Torah only uses the term Atzeret in association with the festival of Shemini Atzeret, not Shavuot. \u00a0First, while labor is forbidden on all yamim tovim<\/em>, festivals have specific practical mitzvah <\/em>observances associated with their celebra\u00adtion. \u00a0<\/em>On Pesach, we eat matzah and drink four cups of wine.\u00a0 On Sukkot, we dwell in the sukkah <\/em>and take the daled minim. \u00a0<\/em>But on Shavuot only the cessation of work is commanded. Thus, Shavuot is known as Atzeret, signifying its only form of yom tov<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The Kedushat Levi further explained that the names of all Yamim Tovim <\/em>reflect a specific historical event to be commemorated in subse\u00adquent generations in a religious sense. Shavuot, however, is not a name reflecting any historical event.\u00a0 It is an identifier of time, the completion of the mitzvah <\/em>of counting Sefirat Ha\u2019Omer<\/em>\u00a0(the counting of the Omer<\/em>). \u00a0<\/em>Celebrating a \u201cconclusion\u201d seems at odds with Jewish practice.\u00a0 We celebrate in anticipation of coming celebrations, of the mitzvot\u00a0<\/em>to be fulfilled more than those already fulfilled.\u00a0\u00a0 Our joyous anticipation is the reason for reciting the shehecheyanu <\/em>(blessing that gives thanks for new and unusual experiences)\u00a0prior<\/em> to observing a mitzvah <\/em>rather than at its conclusion.<\/p>\n

Even so, Judaism teaches that joy and religious ecstasy are derived from accomplishment and fulfillment. For the religious and learned Jew, there is no greater joy than the joy found in celebrating a\u00a0siyum; <\/em>celebrating the privilege and opportunity in having completed a significant part of Torah. \u00a0The\u00a0siyum\u00a0<\/em>is not unbridled celebration, however.\u00a0 Although it marks completed accomplishment, it does so with full awareness of the anxieties of finality.\u00a0 We fear completion as much as we celebrate it.\u00a0 Imagine then the joy and trepidation that fills us as we anticipate the soon-to-be celebrated\u00a0Siyum\u00a0HaShas<\/em>!\u00a0 No ordinary siyum\u00a0<\/em>this is.\u00a0 No.\u00a0 The Shas <\/em>is completed only once in seven years!\u00a0 Such a culmination!\u00a0 And yet\u2026 seven years hence, will I be able to rejoice once again?\u00a0 We celebrate endings even as we long for beginnings.\u00a0 As the committed student of Torah proclaims, “hadran alach” \u2013 <\/em>\u201cI shall return to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The genuine Jew wants not only to celebrate the joys of yesterday, but even more to anticipate the hopes of tomorrow.<\/p>\n

This, then, is the essence of the Shavuot\u00ad Atzeret experience. Rashi comments that it is Shemini Atzeret that focuses on our need to linger, to continue the joys of celebration rather than allow them to come to an abrupt ending\u00ad \u2013 shekashe alai peridatchem. \u00a0<\/em>Shavuot marks the completion of the mitzvah <\/em>of counting the Omer. Atzeret induces us to continue the effect of the goals towards which we counted.<\/p>\n

When the Kedushat Levi concludes that when a Jew experiences a reli\u00adgious awakening and reaches a spiritual elevation, he embraces an inner urge to translate the love, ecstasy, and yearning into practical application, he is in accord with the Ramban.<\/p>\n

The Ramban interprets the verse in the Song of Songs, “Mah tairu umah<\/em> teoreru et ha\u2019avah ad shetechpatz” \u00a0\u2013 <\/em>\u201cThat you awaken not, nor stir up love, until it pleases\u201d \u2013 to mean that free and unfettered love is mere \u201csound and fury\u201d unless it finds a mode of practical expression. \u00a0In the same way, one cannot love or worship G-d in theory<\/em>. \u00a0Religious inspiration and exulta\u00adtion demand ad shetechpatz<\/em>.\u00a0 Such a religious fervor calls for the creation of chefetz, keli, <\/em>a vessel through which to express and manifest these innermost feelings and emotions.<\/p>\n

The Jews at Sinai obviously reached these highest levels of religious exultation and fervor, but did not as yet possess any practical means of expression, other than the fulfillment of the negative command to hold back and refrain from, \u201ctouching the mountain.\u201d Thus the Yom Tov <\/em>is known as Atzeret, recalling the one and only commandment, the only \u201cvessel\u201d now available to translate their deep and exulted religious feelings.<\/p>\n

The three reasons given by Reb Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev as to why Shavuot is referred to as Atzeret correspond powerfully to three explanations of that great expression of remembering, the recitation of Yizkor <\/em>(memorial prayer).<\/p>\n

There are those who view the past merely as history, as dead.\u00a0 To them, the past has no valuable lessons or implications to impart for the present or future. For them, the past is not merely past, but it is valueless for the here and now. Jews who cling to this sense of the past find no meaning in rituals of mourning.\u00a0 For them, tearing k\u2019riah, <\/em>sitting shiva, <\/em>and observing the halachic<\/em> modes of mourning are archaic. \u00a0For them, the past is ancient history which has no meaningful or practical expression. Their Jewish past is over and gone, it ceased with the passing of parents or grandparents. It is abstract, it has no practical methods of contemporary expres\u00adsion.<\/p>\n

Then there are those Jews who are able to find a more meaningful, yet incomplete method of reciting Yizkor, <\/em>of remembering the past. \u00a0For them, recalling the past evokes warm and tender feelings and sentiments, but those emotions affect them only to a point. \u00a0They are willing to \u201cvisit\u201d the past, but they will not allow the past to \u201cvisit\u201d the present.\u00a0 They refuse to allow the past to affect their present or future. \u00a0These are Jews who respect the past, study and analyze it, do research and issue studies and journals about the world of our fathers, the shtetl, <\/em>the world of yesteryear.<\/p>\n

These are Jews reciting Yizkor <\/em>describing and recalling a siyum, <\/em>but who are unable to proclaim “hadran\u00a0alach,”<\/em>\u00a0\u201cI shall return to you.\u201d The passing of grandparents and parents is an abrupt end, without anxieties of kasheh alai<\/em> \u00a0peridatchem \u2013 <\/em>without the inducement to continue the effects and leg\u00adacy of those who taught us.<\/p>\n

Then there is the third way, the only genuine and authentic method of reciting Yizkor<\/em>.\u00a0 This way is to be able to translate and transform memories, emotions, and past love into new realities. Solomon exclaimed, \u201cWhy awaken or rouse the love, unless you are willing to create a new vessel to contain it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Recalling the past is meaningful only when one is able to transfer the ahavah <\/em>into a new chefetz. \u00a0<\/em>Genuine and credible tears, memories, and emotions are an acknowledgment that the present has only been made possible because of its connection with the past, and that any future must likewise be connected with the present. Mourning and recalling those who preceded us, with their love and dedication, must include an acknowledgment that our present is not only their past, but also the future of the next generation.<\/p>\n

The past, then, is the key to our future.<\/p>\n

\n

Rabbi Dr. Eliyahu Safran<\/strong> serves as OU Koshe<\/a>r\u2019s vice president of communications and marketing.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shavuot reminds us that the past is never dead. It\u2019s not even past.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":363,"featured_media":25241,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85,142],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiration","category-shavuot"],"yoast_head":"\nRemembering: In the Past, We See Our Future - OU Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Shavuot reminds us the past is never dead It\u2019s not even past. 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