Choosing Your Calendar...

I discussed Parashat Bo (last week's haftarah) with my Rabbi and we came to this fascinating and beautiful place...

The commentaries of the parasha focus much on the different "starting points" of the Jewish Calendar. Rosh Hashanah marks the beginning of the "world" or creation, while this Hebrew month (Nissan) marks the first months of the year. In other words, there are several simultaneous calendars going on in Jewish life (lunar, solar, weekly, liturgical etc...)

What we opened up was that there are lots of calendars in every person's life and that the calendars we value most or incorporate most in our lives say much about our values and interests. There is the school calendar, the natural calendar, the familial calendar, the sports calendar, the National calendar, the Marital calendar, the biological (especially for women) calendar etc...The question arises: what do we do when events on our calendars conflict? What do we do when the NCAA finals are on TV during the night of the Passover Seder? What do we do when choosing between attending a funeral and maintaining joy on Shabbos?

Moreover, which calendars serve merely as reference and which are lived? Do we simply check in on sports scores in the paper or internet, or do we live each win and loss with our favorite teams? Do we take note of the changing seasons so that we can change our clothes, or do we smell and see each change in nature in a visceral way. Do we note the Jewish holidays so we can see when we're off from work and when we have to eat matzoh, or do we dance in the rhythm of the Jewish year--from the heights and ecstasy of the High Holidays in the Fall to the beauty of Sukkot, to the hope in the darkness of Hanukkah? Do we live for the weekend or does Shabbos live for us?

Modernity has increased the volume of calendars exponentially; these choices are difficult and complex and often, if you're like me, idiosyncratic. But even in so being, they always say something deep about a choice that seems so banal.