Festivals: Moed (מוֹעֵד)

More than the commemoration of bygone events that transpired in ancient history, Jewish festivals are contemporary celebrations of ideas and energies present in the here and now. This is why they are called moadim—appointments.1

Just as the Tabernacle in the wilderness was referred to as the ohel moed,2 —a tent of meeting—implying an appointed place to encounter G‑d,3 the Jewish festival, the moed, is an appointed time to connect with G‑d and contemplate essential Jewish themes.

Put simply: What the tabernacle was in space, Jewish festivals are in time.

We can value certain ideals in theory, but if we don’t set aside specific times to engage and reflect upon their importance and to experientially incorporate them into our lives, they are as good as lost to us. Festivals are thus sacred appointments entered into our calendars, ensuring that we regularly encounter and internalize Judaism’s core principles and values. In this way, the Jewish calendar is like a spiritual curriculum that we review and renew on an annual basis.

From a mystical perspective, the synchronization of specific themes and times is not arbitrary. Each festival is a portal for the emergence of a unique spiritual energy that is manifest and available exclusively during that window of time. This energy is the seed out of which each festival grows. It is not the historical events we commemorate on each festival that give rise to that day’s unique energy; rather, it is the unique energy inherent in that day that gave rise to those events.

For example: The fifteenth of Nisan (the first day of Pesach) is special not because the Jews were liberated from Egypt on that day; rather, the Jews were liberated from Egypt on that day because the day itself is special.4 Meaning, the fifteenth of Nisan is intrinsically liberatory and already possessed the unique Divine energy of freedom; the exodus was but an expression of that eternal energy embedded in time.

Accordingly, Pesach is called “the time of our freedom,”5 because it is a time when the energy and spiritual inspiration needed to overcome our individual and collective limitations is more available to us. This is why we are told that Abraham “baked matzot and celebrated Pesach”6 centuries before the exodus from Egypt. Abraham wasn’t celebrating an event in the future; he was tapping into a spiritual energy of freedom that was, and always is, present at that time of year.7 The energy of liberation is encoded into the composition of the annual cycle.

Therefore, Pesach is more than just a celebration of freedom granted to our ancestors; it is an appointed time for each of us to gain our own personal freedom by transcending the limitations, real or imagined, that hold us back from achieving our life’s mission. This is why we are instructed in the Haggadah to “see ourselves as having [personally] left Egypt.” It was not only our distant relatives in a faraway land who achieved such liberation; we must also leave our inner Egypt, each and every day.

The same is true for every festival; each one is a personal encounter with the Divine through which we gain special access to that day’s resident spiritual energy.

In fact, like a transistor radio, the mitzvot of each particular festival are finely tuned instruments that allow us to receive and transmit the special frequency of the day. R. Shalom DovBer, the fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe, known as the Rebbe Rashab, while assembling his Seder plate, once put it this way: “[We have] prepared the wagon,” meaning that the Seder plate has the power to transport us on a spiritual journey to our desired destination. He then went on to explain the mystical significance of seemingly mundane objects in the material world (in this case, the food items on the Seder plate), which, when harnessed with the proper intention, have the ability to become “vehicles” that carry us to spiritual destinations far greater than the disembodied soul could reach on its own.

Blowing the shofar on Rosh Hashanah, eating matzah on Pesach, waving the Four Species on Sukkot—each of these are like spiritual antennas that help receive and broadcast the Divine energies available during that particular time.

What’s more, it is also understood that our experiences and efforts during each particular festival serve to irrigate the rest of our year with that very energy. Each festival is thus the wellspring of a particular quality of G‑d’s blessing that will flow throughout the next calendrical cycle.

However, this process is not just cyclical. Every year, during each festival, our world is graced with an influx of a new, never before revealed dimension of that day’s particular energy. Thus, Chasidut teaches that the Divine energy we can tap into this Pesach, Rosh Hashanah, and Shavuot never existed before and will never be available again.8 Far from being merely theoretical, this Chasidic approach to the Jewish festivals has the power to completely transform one’s perception and experience of these sacred times.

From this perspective, Jewish festivals are no longer seen simply as reenactments of ancient events; rather, they become dynamic encounters with an ever-evolving energy and Divine Presence in the universe and our lives. Therefore, when we tap into each festival’s particular energy, we are not just commemorating history, we are making it!

By keeping these appointments with the Divine, by fully inhabiting each of these moments and opportunities, and by observing the various mitzvot and customs associated with each festival, we have the opportunity to channel unimaginable blessings into our lives. As the Rebbe Rashab once stated: “The forty-eight hours of Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah should be highly treasured. Every moment is an opportunity to draw down bucketfuls of material and spiritual treasures. And this is accomplished through dancing” (the primary mitzvah of the festival).

The Previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, R. Yosef Yitzchak, put it this way:9 The Jewish calendar year is like a train ride through time. Each festival is another stop where we alight and head to the local market to acquire the unique wares available only at that juncture. We then get back on the train and head to the next station to obtain its unique offerings. The main point after making the journey and acquiring such precious merchandise is to remember to unpack our wares when we return home from our trip; meaning, after each festival, we must make the effort to internalize and integrate these unique spiritual gifts and energies into our daily lives. In this way, we, too, become vehicles for those Divine energies and blessings, and we help carry them further into the world of the future.

Jewish festivals are in the realm of time what the Tent of Meeting was in the realm of space—an encounter with the Divine, and a singular opportunity to access spiritual offerings never before or afterwards available for the taking.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe once visited a communal Pesach Seder being held at an educational institution in Crown Heights. He turned to the youngest child present and asked, “Do you know the Four Questions by heart?” The boy nodded his head in the affirmative. With a smile, the Rebbe turned to the boy’s father and asked, “But do you know the answers?”

The next day, the Rebbe explained to the father: “When I questioned your son, I used the expression ‘by heart’ intentionally, rather than the Hebrew b’al peh, by rote, because children don’t connect with ceremonies that are merely memorized.

“On Pesach, the child asks: ‘We did this whole ritual last year, why are we doing it again?’ And he’s asking it with all his heart! That’s why I asked your son if he knows the Four Questions by heart.

“And my question to you was whether you know the answers to his questions. Do you know how to answer your child in such a way that he experiences Pesach in a new way this year than he did last year?”