{"id":45840,"date":"2018-12-17T19:24:28","date_gmt":"2018-12-17T17:24:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=45840"},"modified":"2022-07-11T13:14:39","modified_gmt":"2022-07-11T10:14:39","slug":"facing-god-openings-in-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/facing-god-openings-in-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Facing God, Openings In Time"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Offering the list of biblical festivals and holy days, the 23<\/span>rd<\/span> chapter of Leviticus opens with a general instruction, \u201cThese are my fixed times, the fixed times of the Lord, which you shall proclaim as holy occasions.\u201d At the very head of the list of holy days and festivals, pride of place is given to the Sabbath: \u201cOn six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there shall be a sabbath of complete rest, a sacred occasion.\u201d What follows after that is a list of each festival, in the proper order.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why is Shabbat at the head of the list? And why are the festivals linked together in an ordered series? A clue may be offered in the number seven.<\/span><\/p>\n

Shabbat is, as is widely known, the seventh day, set apart and made holy. But what is less immediately clear is that with the inclusion of Shabbat, we are presented a list of seven holy occasions: 1. Shabbat, 2. Pesa\u05d1h, 3. Matzot, 4. Omer counting and Shavuot, 5. First Day of the Seventh Month (later known as Rosh HaShanah, 6. Yom Kippur, and 7. Sukkot.<\/span><\/p>\n

We are given 2 interlocking cycles of seven: the seventh day, every week, and the seven holy occasions, cycling the entire year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Where else do we have such a pattern? In Shemitah<\/em> and Yovel<\/em>, the Sabbatical and Jubilee years, when the seventh year is made holy and the year after the seven times seventh year is also made holy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Seven is clearly a portal into some deeper expression. The Bible doesn\u2019t offer us a specific justification for this number that gazes out as us, but I\u2019d like to notice that seven is also the number of openings on a human face: two eyes, two nostrils, two ears, one mouth. The locus of our identity is the face, marked by seven. So too the locus of the holiness we discover in time is marked by seven.<\/span><\/p>\n

God \u201cfaces\u201d us through the sacred days that escort us through our weeks and years, hallowing our journey through time. And we, in turn, seek the blessing of God\u2019s face on us and our loved ones, an ancient and recurring expression of shalom.<\/span><\/p>\n

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