This week we had a most beautiful and different kind of preschool graduation. These times call for innovation. On the surface, one may say that it is sad, that you cannot experience the life that we are used to. The children want to play with their friends. People want to see each other’s smiles – without the mask that hides them. Social distancing clearly is getting to people. As I watched and listened to the teachers read the graduates’ “report” of the closing of the year, what the children were missing the most was the time that they spend with their friends.
Putting a smile on our faces is important. A meaningful smile is even more important. Celebrating milestones in our lives, in a fun way, is even more important.
Wait a second. …. Why?
From a spiritual perspective, why celebrate? Shouldn’t we just focus on “holy” things? Why get caught up on mundane matters? What is the big deal about being secluded? Don’t ”holy” people do that? Lock themselves up in some building and close off the world and just pray to G-d day and night? Why the need to celebrate life?
This week’s Torah portion teaches us about the extra sacrifices on the holidays (vs. on Shabbat) and this was cause for celebration. After the destruction of the Temple, when offerings were no longer brought, the happiness continued because there is more to the holiday than just the offerings. The holiday itself is cause for celebration.
Times get tough. When the Temple was destroyed the Jews hoped and prayed that it would be rebuilt. We still pray, 2,000 years later, that it will be rebuilt! Yet, they had to look at the times and live in the present moment and ask, Are we happy only because of an offering or is it because of the holiday itself? They came to recognize two points—that they had to find the joy within the holiday itself, and that Judaism recognizes our bodily needs. We are not G-dly bodies, but human beings. We enjoy a good meal, a fun time, and a good celebration. That is why we celebrate holidays even after the Temple’s destruction.
Same applies to our times. Are things different today? Absolutely. Is that a reason not to celebrate? No. We have to find alternate ways to make a meaningful graduation for little children, and for high school and college graduates.
In our own family, we just celebrated our son Zalman’s Bar Mitzvah and we will be celebrating our son Mendel’s wedding. The celebrations are of different kinds of joy, but the happiness that will go along with the celebrations, will know no bounds.