Celebrating Shavuot Inspires a Positive Future
Life feels hard. I want to go and do, but it takes a lot of stamina and motivation to go forth. And then on top of our “regular” life, June brings graduations, weddings, social and family commitments, traffic, and showing up fully for others.
In addition to all that, if you want to connect to your Jewish practice, it can feel like way too much. We are heading towards the Holiday of Shavuot.
What is Shavuot you ask? Sometimes there is so much to think about with each Jewish Holiday that there is a real need to simplify. Simply speaking, it is a harvest festival from ancient times. It was the celebration of the “Barley Harvest.”
Here is what is so cool. Although I do not farm, I love thinking about seasons governing my life. That they just happen no matter what chaos may be occurring. And a festival to take us back in time, to our people celebrating a good harvest and enough barley to feed their animals feels so simple, such a vacation from the complexity and stresses of everyday life.
Now, to comprehend the true magic of this holiday we layer onto this idea the Biblical timeline, when the new nation of Israelites receive the rules and laws that will structure them into a good and fair functioning society. In order to receive them, they must spiritually cleanse themselves of their old ideas of slavery, pagan worship of the surrounding nations, inequality, and powerlessness.
We then take this concept and apply it to our own spiritual, and personal growth. And like them we must do a huge “heave ho” of all of our personal baggage - lies, habits, stubbornness, fears, resentments and limitations -and throw ourselves into faith and future.
Metaphorically we take our bundles, individual sheaves of barley, and use this counting as spiritually accounting and letting go so we can “thresh and winnow,” where we separate the wheat from its hull, the nourishing grains of revelation and meaning for our everyday lives.
Inside every bundle of wheat or barley is a “harvest” of themes that help us redirect our animal nature into a positive empowering quality. We take this metaphor from the earth and nature to contemplate profound teachings from our ancestors that help us answer some of our existential questions about human existence.
In my own life, I am separating myself from my “hull” (negativity) that holds me back. We are all at the crossroads of new pathways and so I remind myself I am not alone. The seed of my revelation has come after a lot of hard work. This month was filled with challenges. I made a decision, and commitment to:
Be kind to myself
Practice asking my Creator for direction (daily, and best in the morning) Accepting what is, right now
Add gratitude for what is working in my life. After all, it could be worse, right?
The result or harvest that I am reaping is a positive vision of my future; new possibilities. I hope this for you too in June and moving forward.
