Meeting places – Emor
Emor enumerates the festivals. They are called mo’adim, literally meeting places.
They are the times when we meet each other to remember and re-live our history. They are the times when we directly meet our ancestors.
There is a movement these days that has the slogan, “Saw you at Sinai!”. We also saw each other in Egypt, in Babylon, in Spain, in Eastern Europe – in the west and the east, wherever our history took us.
Pesach is when we return to Egypt and re-experience the bondage and the Exodus that finally brought us to the Promised Land. Shavu’ot brings us to Mount Sinai where we are our ancestors hearing and receiving the Torah. Sukkot takes us back into the wilderness where we faced the elements and found shelter in flimsy huts.
Above all, the festivals enable us to re-encounter God in His capacity of Protector and Saviour who watched over us and enabled us to overcome the plagues and the torments.
