Rabbi Jonathan Sacks observes, “The heart of all Jewish festivals can be summed up like this: They tried to kill us. We survived. Let’s eat.”
Eating as affirmation: Affirmation of God’s goodness, affirmation of life, affirmation of life’s goodness.
Small wonder, then, that festivals and eating are so much a part of religious celebrations and small wonder that heaven is portrayed as a banquet.
Invite your friends and family into your home, cook a meal, share your table. There is no need to worry about your culinary skills. More than one great religious festival in the Jewish tradition was eaten on the run without a lot of time for preparation.
What is important is the affirmation at the heart of it all.
The rabbi’s quote made me “LOL” as they say in cyberworld. But what a wonderful take on all those fests that always make my eyes glaze over a little when my Jewish doctor friends at the hospital start going on about them so passionately in our theology discussions. I’ll have to throw that quote at them though I’m sure they may know it. People in biblical times, and devout Jews still, really did take the gifts and blessings of the food God provided very seriously, didn’t they. A far cry from our McDonald’s Christian culture.