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Life C ach JULY 28, 2022 | The Jewish Home
Count Me In Rivki D. Rosenwald Esq., LMFT, CLC, SDS
T
he Three Weeks. The Nine Days. Forty-nine days of counting. Ten days of atoning. Two-day holidays. One day in Israel. Three-day holiday this year. Four days of chol hamoed. No, there’s a Shabbos; it’s only three days of real chol hamoed. What’s with the numerically rich and diverse Jewish days? How does it all “add” up? And also, what’s with the confusing messages: This year it’s a good chol hamoed! Next holiday doesn’t work out so well. Which is it? Well, it depends on the year! Or: the fast day was actually yesterday but that was Saturday, so the fast day is today! But how if it was yesterday can it be today? Or: the old famous one: the holiday is early this year. The holiday was late last year. But next year, it’s late again. Wouldn’t you think if it finally learned to be early it would not go back to being late again?! Especially, when it had a whole year to prepare?
I “number” all this among the confusing things in our religious practice! Like here are some more: If you can atone in one day, on Yom Kippur, why do you need ten days of atoning? But if you need ten days to atone, how can you get it all done in one?
Three Weeks? Why don’t they get their own time designation? If you’re following all this, I’m impressed. If you’re not, then I guess you can see how all this can be confusing. Although, the amazing thing about
If we live life not thinking, just letting one day roll into the next, we miss the significance of time.
Or: what about the fact that the holiday we actually received the Torah, Shavuot, probably the most momentous occasion in our history, is one holiday that doesn’t get a date assigned to it? It just comes 49 days after Passover! But what if Passover comes on a late year, does it run right over Shavuot? And why is the Nine Days part of the
this, like most everything else in Judaism, is that there are explanations for it all. We know people count till their wedding day. Or kids till their birthday. Or mothers and fathers till their kids come home from their year abroad. Or parents till they have that baby. So being aware of amounts of time
seems important. Counting lets us know things have value. But it also registers awareness. If we live life not thinking, just letting one day roll into the next, we miss the significance of time. Each time we are aware of a time, or a change in time, we are living conscious of the limited quantity of time and its value. Therefore, when we count these different moments in our calendar, we wake up more to the time we have. If we think counting doesn’t count, we may forget to count ourselves lucky, and to count our blessings, and most importantly to remember we are all here because we count!
Rivki Rosenwald is a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist working with both couples and individuals and is a certified relationship counselor. Rivki is a co-founder and creator of an effective Parent Management of Adolescent Years Program. She can be contacted at 917705-2004 or at rivkirosenwald@gmail.com.
