Tonight marked the beginning of the Feast of Ingathering, or Sukkot (sue-KOTE), named after the temporary shelters we camp out in to commemorate the dependence of the Israelites on the Almighty, specifically remembering the 40 years He sheltered them while in the desert after delivering them out of Egypt before bringing them into the Promised Land.
It's a reminder of how fragile our lives are and how every day we're dependent on Him...it's also timed with the ingathering of the harvest yearly and is a time to gather, be happy, camp out as a community, and celebrate for several days! We've wanted so much to join in one of these gatherings since we were married in 2004, and each year we've been unable to. But it's always in our hearts. Hopefully next year!
A life dream would be to be in The Land (Israel) during one or more of the special feasts/holy days...Passover, Shavuot, or the High Holy Days (Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, Sukkot). I cannot explain this desire other than to say that it's fueled by the verses I read, something probably foundationally laid from the time I was a really young child and could picture the stories read to me as if I were right there in the middle of the narratives. I want to see Jerusalem in person, and I pray for the day the temple will be rebuilt.
What this has to do with the rest of our lives is hard to explain. Sometimes I hesitate to write these things here on the blog, and yet they're inseparably a part of me and a part of Jack. I've been led to this point through a set of circumstances I participated in, and yet it has come at a cost, so I value it all the more. I feel lonely sometimes in this spiritual place, but at the same time would not choose to undo any part of the journey. It's in fact something I'm putting into a journal, perhaps even book form. I was an avid student of the time period of pre-christianity where there was seemingly a gap of silence between the obvious diverse Judaism of the first century and the later advent of an entirely separate religion (christianity) directly linked to it foundationally, yet declaring itself removed from its tenets. This subject has fascinated me since my late youth, and in the last couple of decades has been one of the most hotly and avidly discussed/debated/studied subjects in many circles of students and scholars.
Anyway...that's beyond the scope of this blog. Just noting the side current that parallels our other life interests. It provides the ever present theme around which the other notes dance in variation... la la la, as usual, I wax Off Topic ;-)
Happy Sukkot to all who celebrate it, and blessings to all our friends out here...may your harvest be overflowing!
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