Leap of faith: will spring bring renewed hope in a dark time?
We should use the power of the seasons to repair our broken world
Will spring bring renewed hope with the longer days? Well… yes and no. The cycle of the Jewish year is one of renewal and as such essentially optimistic.
The seven weeks that we walk between Pesach and Shavuot – the time we spend counting the Omer – is a period of personal spiritual renewal and of hope and anticipation as the days grow longer.
But the Torah that we receive on Shavuot does not automatically bring renewed hope. What it does do is provide a framework of laws that – if we follow them – will ensure a brighter future and a more just and peaceful world. But only if we do indeed follow them.
So for example – we need to love our neighbour as ourself; to look after the stranger; to remember that we are all made in the image of God; to refrain from taking revenge or bearing a grudge. These are rules that are not always easy to follow.
If we don’t follow them then as late spring turns to midsummer and Shavuot gives way to the months of Tammuz and Tisha B’Av we are reminded that there are always consequences to our actions; that the Promised Land is given to us on condition that we keep these laws – and that if we don’t we can lose it.
Judaism is rooted in the rhythm of the natural year – we celebrate freedom from slavery in spring and we harvest our spiritual lives in the autumn – but there is nothing inevitable about our growth through the seasons. Jewish life is not just a circle – it is a spiral. Linear time in which one year follows the other intersects with the cycle of the year.
Hope will come if we use the power of the seasons to take action to repair our broken world. Hope will come if we use our freedom and this Torah we are given to make our world a better place.
I very much hope that the longer days will bring renewed hope but that will only happen if we use the growing light to protest against injustice and support those who are working for a better world.
To paraphrase the philosopher Michael Walzer, wherever we are it is probably Egypt. We know that there is a better place – a promised land. And the only way to get there is through the wilderness.
Rabbi Naomi Goldman is at Kol Chai Hatch End Reform Jewish Community
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