To be counter-cultural one must be in conversation with the surrounding culture. Jewish wisdom has often walked a fine line between cultural engagement and rejection, the golden mean being dialogue. The contemporary Jewish holidays that occupy the days and weeks between Passover and Shavuot convey more of rebuttal than a dialogue. The wisdom they express is intentionally counter-cultural and yet in a way meant to expand meaning for everyone.
This past Thursday, Jews commemorated Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day). The date follows the Hebrew calendar; and, after some initial shifting experiments in the early years of the state of Israel, coincides with the day that the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising began. The holiday’s full name is actually Yom HaShoah v’HaGevurah (Holocaust & Heroism Remembrance Day) to recognize so much more than the death of six million Jews. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising held off the Nazis for 28 days, longer than most countries during World War II. Choosing the date it started for annual commemoration speaks volumes.
The choice is all the more poignant now that the United Nations General Assembly in 2005 declared Jan. 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day to mark the date of the liberation of the Auschwitz and Birkenau camps. Both dates pointedly focus less on death. Liberating the camps meant freeing survivors and stopping future deaths. Starting the uprising meant that each day alive would be a day that would count not just be counted. Freeing and fighting both help the living; the Jewish focus, though, is on the quality of life, not the quantity.
This coming week, Jews will mark Yom HaZikaron (Israel’s Memorial Day) and Yom HaAtzmaut (Israel’s Independence Day). Unlike our American practice of a summer kick-off with some Memorial Day parades to remember those who fell fighting for our freedoms and a heavy focus on swimming pools, barbeques, and sales, Israel’s Memorial Day is a somber introduction to Independence Day literally the day before. Yom HaZikaron with visits to gravesides, somber music on the radio, and national mourning ends with Yom HaAtzmaut’s fireworks and celebrations. In the Israeli version, each holiday has more meaning because of its connection to the other. This combination was a conscious choice. Again, life and liberty become aspects of making our days count, not just counting the dead and the years.
If Jewish wisdom has this message to offer in this specific time period, how might we apply it this year, even today? The great irony is that these holidays with their message to make days count fall during a period in which Jews fulfill a biblical commandment to count 49 days from Passover to Shavuot (the latter literally meaning “weeks” for the 7 weeks those 49 days comprise).
What is more, the first 33 days are observed largely with mourning practices to remember the loss of Rabbi Akiva’s 12,000 pairs of students who died of a plague. The plague ended on the 33rd day (if only COVID disappeared as quickly). Remember, the holidays described above are contemporary. They fight against simply counting; they rebut the notion that being free is being alive.
Against the backdrop of counting up to Shavuot or counting down to the pandemic’s end, Jewish wisdom today is reminding us to make the most of each day. As the weather turns warm, let us not simply burst out of doors, let us cherish what we built inside and bring that value with us. Let us claim what we may have lost, and do better moving forward. And, just as with Yom HaShoah and Yom HaZikaron let us also remember that many died, our being alive is a gift.
About Rabbi Jeremy Winaker
Rabbi Jeremy Winaker is the executive director of the Greater Philadelphia Hillel Network, responsible for West Chester University, Haverford, Bryn Mawr, and other area colleges. He is the former head of school at the Albert Einstein Academy in Wilmington and was the senior Jewish educator at the Kristol Hillel Center at the University of Delaware for four years. Rabbi Winaker lives in Delaware with his wife and three children.
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