Giving a Loud "No Thanks"...a Guide for the Havdala Oblivious

By the Bray of Fundie

Qedushas Hazman= the sanctity of time is one of the great challenges to Havdala Consciousness, second only to Qedushas Haneshama= the sanctity of soul in it's ephemeral, unseen nature and in it's counter-intuitiveness to all the empirical evidence. How is a Saturday any different from a Friday or a Sunday? Other than the likely absence of inclement weather how is a week in the spring when we eat unleavened bread any different than a week in the fall when we sit in booth? What is it about the 10th of Tishrei, NOT the 9th nor the 11th that compels us to fast?

Yet it is in z'manim that the Creator of both soul, time and space chose to implement his Havdala program for the cosmos...

יד וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים, יְהִי מְאֹרֹת בִּרְקִיעַ הַשָּׁמַיִם, לְהַבְדִּיל, בֵּין הַיּוֹם וּבֵין הַלָּיְלָה; וְהָיוּ לְאֹתֹת וּלְמוֹעֲדִים, וּלְיָמִים וְשָׁנִים.
14 And God said: 'Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years;

Moadim are a uniquely Jewish concept as Rashi comments ad locum : For seasons.55
[This is said] concerning the future. For Israel will be commanded concerning the holidays which are reckoned by the new moon.

Time as measured and governed by the celestial bodies is about havdala and creating "space" for sacred times, time to commune with G-d and with one another.

We already have a Thanksgiving Holiday...It is called Khanukah וקבעו שמונת ימי חנוכה אלו להודות ולהללWe already have a Family-get-together-around-a-big-festive-meal Holiday...It's called Pesakh. So when we observe Thanksgiving today we rob those otheres of their uniquness. We reschedule our appointed times/dates (Moed) with G-d and with one another. We declare non equations to eqaute. Most perverse of all the true Jewish Tahnksgiving -Khanuka's- major subplot is the havdala bein Yisrael L'amim by vanquishing the greeks who were hellbent on erasing this havdala.

So when Turkey=matzah and cranberry sauce= Marror then Matzah is not Matzah and Marror is not Marror.

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If you can't tell the difference between a Tahnksgiving Turkey and a Pesakh K'naeidel then by all means Buy DovBear's book. (please)