I have not posted as of recent. Sadly, I missed the opportunity to share great insight for Pesach; as in, I feel what I wanted to share may be no longer relevant. Nevertheless, I found a connection among Pesach (our festival of freedom), the mourning period, called the Omer, we are currently in, and the next holiday, Shavuos.
The Omer starts the second day of Pesach and counts forty-nine days. The following day, on the fiftieth, is when Gd gave us the Torah and is called Shavuos. Shavuos is known by a few names, none, though, as strange as Atzeres. The name "Atzeres" is shared with the last day of Sukkos (the Harvest Festival) called Shmini Atzeres. These holidays are both a week long and commemorate Hashem taking us out of Egypt. Additionally, these holidays are riddled with symbols that are juxtaposed in their nature.
During Pesach we eat flat cracker-like bread called matzah. It symbolizes lechem l'oni (the bread of poverty/affliction) and, conversely, matzah represents freedom. Sukkos, too, has its various symbols, but the Sukkah (booth) takes precedence. It symbolizes Gd's protection over us during the forty years spent wandering the desert. These week-long festivals are momentous times for growth and connection and end with days named "Atzeres".
Now the parallels between Pesach and Sukkos have been drawn, I wonder why Atzeres has a connection to both these two week-long holidays? "Atzeres" literally means to stop. Funny enough, however, it also means to congregate. While the two terms have little to do with one another on the surface, theoretically, when people stop they congregate! Ta-dah!
The beautiful point I'd like to infer, though, only rests on these concepts. The core of Judaism is to be kind to one another. But as I am not the sum of my parts, nor is my heritage. Judaism works as a system to draw Gd in THIS world and to accomplish this feat we need to integrate our Torah values with our reality. This, no doubt, takes a lot of hard work strewn with failures. The Omer demonstrates this process of change.
For every week of the Omer, there is one of the seven middos (attributes) of Hashem we take upon ourself to work on. For every day of that week, the seven middos are recycled so that in the week we get all seven as a sort of sub-middah. These weeks are built for growth and integration of what we learned on Pesach.
Sukkos is a weeklong journey with Gd's shechina (presence) resting in our mists. We learn this world is transitionatory and rests in Gd's hands. When Sukkos comes to a close, we celebrate Simchas Torah on Shmini Atzeres, in which we dance and sing for joy about receiving our Torah. On Pesach, we learn how we became a nation and why Gd freed us! To give us the Torah on Atzeres/Shavuos! The process of growth, to rise from the level of slaves in Egypt to receiving the Torah, is the process during the time of the Omer. That's precisely why we call Shavuos "Atzeres". Because Shavuos is the grand finale [read: to stop and gather] and culmination of what we learned on Pesach and how we've integrated it into our lives during the Omer!
Essentially, we climb beautiful mountains. As we trek upwards, we are often faced with scary obstacles. We occasionally hurdle over them, but mostly, we stumble and fall. Nonetheless, at one point, we stop and take a look around. We take a deep breathe and admire the vast world we live in. We see the sun setting and the horizon widen. We see our family and friends trail alongside us. We notice the beauty that we couldn't see while in transit up the mountain. This moment is Atzeres.
