Wednesday,
May 8, 2002
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Wednesday,
May 8, 2002 |
| Should there be one day of Yom Tov in the Diaspora? | ||||||||
| In the Diaspora, extra days are customarily added to Sukkot, Passover and Shavuot -- originally a response to uncertainty in the Diaspora about the day on which the Sanhedrin in the Land of Israel announced the New Moon. The Reform movement dropped the second day; the issue is now arousing debate in the Conservative movement. | ||||||||
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Conservative Rabbi Gary Atkins, of Beth Jacob Synagogue, Norwich, Connecticut, debates fellow Conservative Rabbi Michael Graetz, of Magen Avraham Congregation in Omer, Israel. | ||||||||
After long study, our synagogue has decided to observe the pilgrimage festivals as prescribed in the Torah and observed today in Israel: one day of holiday at the beginning and end of Passover and Sukkot, and only one day of Shavuot. Yes, there are longstanding traditions; but traditions change. We have changed prayer books, for both Shabbat and the High Holidays, several times. And we have heard numerous melodies at the High Holiday services. These are just two simple examples of ways in which rabbis and cantors modified worship services to enhance their meaning. The rabbis of the Talmud, if they lived today, would wonder how the second day of yom tov could continue to be observed long after the institution of a permanent calendar, with the beginning of the month no longer set by a rabbinic court. Over 30 years ago, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly discussed and issued responsa on both the theoretical and practical grounds for this change. What Rabbi Philip Sigal wrote then is even more true today: "On the American scene... the second festival day presents special problems unknown to past generations… [students] find the forced absence from classes for five more days an extreme hardship... The sad result is that the overwhelming majority of them go to school on these ‘holy days’... professional and business people also find the observance of these second festival days untenable... the overwhelming majority of our people do not observe the two days of yom tov." Rabbi Gary Atkins Dear Rabbi Atkins, It is true that customs and halakhah have changed over the centuries. Still, each item must be carefully considered in itself. The principle underlying the custom is of crucial importance. You imply that the second day is a "ruling that the public cannot stand." I’m not sure this is true, and if you start to invoke that halakhic principle, where will it end? You write that if the Talmudic rabbis lived today they would change the custom. In my view they do live today, through the continually developing halakhic literature. One of the great 18th-century rabbis, the Hakham Tzvi, clearly rules that visitors to Israel, even those making only a short visit, should observe only one day of a festival. It seems to me that this ruling is based upon a principle that the difference between the Land of Israel and the Diaspora is primarily a difference in holiness. This principle is so basic to Judaism that tampering with it would be wrong and have a negative effect on the Jews’ overall spiritual persona. Diaspora Jews should maintain two days of yom tov, and if they come to Israel, observe only one day. Michael Graetz |
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There has not been a decision or a change in Jewish life that somehow has not evoked protest that it was a deviation from the custom of earlier generations. Certainly that has been true of every development within Conservative Judaism. I would not have agreed to this particular change if I did not find Rabbi Sigal’s analysis compelling. To quote his responsum: "It is quite certain that had our forefathers enjoyed the worldwide system of communications at our disposal, such as telephone, telegraph and jet planes, the [second day of festivals]... would never have come into practice." In fact, the Talmudic sages in Babylon contemplated eliminating the second day as soon as they considered themselves expert in establishing when the month began. Abayeh, one of the most prominent Talmudic teachers, supported the view that the second day was not as sacred as the first, implying that it was an obligation the Diaspora accepted only as long as there was confusion about the calendar. The second day was not regarded as an irreversible enactment, but an emergency ruling. Gary Gary, The arguments you cite overlook the main values and beliefs in question. If it were simply a matter of not being certain of the date, why was the second day not abolished over a thousand years ago, when a permanent calendar was fixed? Based on the Hakham Tzvi, I gain an insight into the reason it was not abolished. I believe he is thinking along the lines of the late Rabbi Yehiel Weinberg, who cited the verse, "For man is the tree of the field" (Deuteronomy 20:19). "Just as a tree depends on two factors in its growth -- the earth in which it is rooted, and the air in which it lives -- so man needs for his spiritual growth the earth upon which he is born and the environment which he breathes into his inner being and from which he lives and develops." In the Land of Israel, he argues, the Jew gets both kinds of nourishment, from the land and from the surrounding environment. But in the Diaspora, "we have no possibility to live and to exist as Jews except by creating for ourselves synagogues and houses of study… within which the environment is made holy by the Torah." The Diaspora compensates for the lack of the sacred space of the Land of Israel by adding to the sacred environment of yom tov. The second day was not dropped because there was a deep need to affirm the special sacredness that being in the land adds to the Jew’s existence. It was not the sanctity of the day that was in play here, but the relative sanctity of the place, and that, I maintain, is still central to Judaism. Michael | ||||||
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