If you find yourself sitting in services here at Ohev Shalom, there are a few themes you may here me speak about from the bimah. It's true for pretty much every rabbi; we have certain "soap boxes" that we ascend, and we find different ways and methods of conveying basically the same message. In my case,
I often speak about "Rabbinic Math." I use this term to refer to the way our ancient (and not-so-ancient) rabbis have a habit of saying there are four instances of something... and then they name three. Or maybe five. Make no mistake - they are not BAD at math. It's a teaching tool, or a technique, that forces us all to think. We must ask ourselves, "How can I expand these three, so there really ARE four?" or "How might two of the five really be saying something similar, so the total number indeed is four?" It's very crafty. And this week, they're at it again.
Many of you have heard me talk about the
Four Special Shabbatot before Pesach. Ever since the time of the
Mishnah, nearly two thousand years ago, the rabbis spoke about four special Torah readings that
would help prepare us for Passover. And yet, there are actually FIVE of them! Well, sort of. The rabbis of the Mishnah did indeed list only four - Shekalim, Zachor, Parah, and Ha-Chodesh - but sometime in the Middle Ages, a fifth was added... but we still only refer to them as the Four Special Shabbatot!! Yay for Rabbinic Math... Now only the first four have special Torah readings, but all five have unique Haftarah texts, and all five have distinct names. Sooooo, why doesn't the fifth one count?!?! Silly rabbis... Yet I remind you again, it ain't because they were bad at math, or even too set in their ways. There's more here for us to learn and discover.
So this week is Shabbat Ha-Gadol; that fifth, anomalous, outlier of a Sabbath. If you search through rabbinic sources (or, to make life easier, ask Siri or search on Google...), you'll find at least EIGHT different reasons why this Shabbat is called "Ha-Gadol."
And whenever you find that many explanations for something, you know it means no one knows the ACTUAL reason. What we do know is that it is always the last Shabbat before Pesach. The Haftarah reading comes from the Prophet Malachi, and concludes portentously by speaking of God sending Elijah the Prophet to herald the Messianic Era, just before the coming of "the
Gadol and fearful day of the Lord" (Malachi, 3:23). So what does "Gadol" mean here? Maybe it's a "great" day? Or perhaps "fearful"? Those two are pretty different, no? Indeed, if you look up synonyms for the word "great," to try and see what "Gadol" could mean, you get an incredible array of options, and any one of them could be the "correct" translation of this word. It's a critical question too, right? If this is Shabbat Ha-Gadol, shouldn't we know what "Gadol" means, so we might know how to feel or behave on this Shabbat???
I'll give you a few options: Absolute, Awesome, Boundless, Complete, Cool, Enormous, Immense, Magnificent, Profound, Serious, Terrific, Terrifying, and Unlimited. So where am I going with all of this?
I think that each of these are also emotions we could feel about the Passover Seder, and potentially about cleaning for Pesach, or even about being Jewish and/or observing Jewish rituals and laws in general! Perhaps Shabbat Ha-Gadol isn't one of the four Shabbatot that prepare us for Pesach, because the lead-up is over; the holiday is upon us! Shabbat Ha-Gadol is essentially part of the holiday observance itself, and each of us has an opportunity to decide - with the Seders just a few days away - how to feel about Pesach. Is it great and profound, or is it terrifying and unending? The wait is over, the preparation is behind us. NOW it's time for Pesach, and it's time to connect with our history and put ourselves back in the story of our people. But we each get to decide how we do that, and what emotions we will bring to this experience. It's definitely going to be Gadol, we know that much. But what "Gadol" is going to mean - this year, in this place, at this moment - is entirely up to you.
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